Bangladeshi workers riot over prices

Some 20,000 Bangladeshi textile workers from over a dozen factories riot over high food prices and low wages, near the capital, Dhaka.

The workers went on the rampage in Fatullah, 20 kilometers south of Dhaka, demanding better pay amid soaring rice prices, police chief Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan said.

They wrecked cars and buses, vandalized factories and hurled bricks and stones at police, he said.

Police fired tear gas and used batons to break up the protests and at least 50 people were injured, most of them police officers.

Hasan noted representatives of the manufacturers, labor and the military would meet in an attempt to defuse the unrest.

The riots came after the government said food prices, notably rice, which is a staple in Bangladesh, had doubled in the past year due to a massive production shortfall after devastating floods and a cyclone.

Last month, many associations urged the government to distribute subsidized rice to 2.5 million workers, fearing the food price hike could cause unrest among them.