16 Jun 2010

Police fire on World Cup workers

11:28 am on 16 June 2010

South African police have fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of football World Cup workers protesting over wages in the coastal city of Durban.

The workers had been deployed as stewards in the stadium where Germany had earlier beaten Australia 4-0 in their opening World Cup game.

They were chased from the stadium by riot police armed with shotguns and shields.

A witness says at least one woman was injured when she was hit by a rubber bullet.

One of the workers says they were mounting a peaceful protest because they were not being paid what they expected, when the police fired teargas.

Later, there was a standoff as workers' supervisors tried to negotiate with them while heavily armed police watched.