BACHELET

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP):

Police struggled with looters and clashed with protesters at flaming barricades through the night in Chile's capital. Officials said yesterday that at least 670 people had been detained and 83 were injured.

The demonstrations began Wednesday morning as a protest organised by the country's largest labour federation against the government's market-friendly economic policies. By evening, some degenerated into riots and looting of shops and gas stations in working-class neighbourhoods. Demonstrators sheltered behind barricades of flaming tyres and police said some fired guns and hurled gasolene bombs. Power was knocked out in some areas because protesters threw chains over electric power cables. At least 33 police officers and 50 demonstrators were injured, authorities said, and at least 670 people were detained.

"Never mind how just the demands are," President Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday night. "We will not tolerate violence." Union leader Arturo Martinez, called the protest "a success for Chile's workers," and called the government to a dialogue over their demands for higher wages and better health, education and other services.