The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said the state-enterprise factory in Longhua Town hired 1,500 workers. When it was sold to a private operator in August, the county government failed to return to the workers an unspecified sum of investment they placed with the factory and their pension fund.

After numerous meetings with the county head had failed to solve the issue, a few hundred workers started a strike Monday and some of them slept on the railway near Longhua train station Wednesday morning, the Hong Kong-based watchdog said.

More than 1,000 armed police officers who were deployed at the scene clashed with the protesters and cleared them off the tracks after three hours of protest, leaving 10 workers injured, the center said.

While the police continued to guard major routes, the train station and the tracks on Thursday, some of the workers pledged to throw themselves in the paths of moving trains if their problems are not solved.

A staff member who answered the telephone at the town police post confirmed the clash Wednesday, but declined to reveal more details, claiming he was not the official spokesman.

==Kyodo