May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Macau as a rally against labour shortages turned violent Tuesday, sparking rare scenes of civil unrest in the southern Chinese territory. Police fired five rounds into the air and used dogs to disperse a crowd of around 1,000 protesters after they broke through cordons lining the route of the march. Cheered by onlookers, they marched towards government offices downtown only to be penned back at a nearby fish market.

 A tense standoff then began that went on into the evening, with protesters surrounding one police vehicle until officers agreed to release a number of people they had arrested. In subsequent scuffles, protesters threw missiles, including water bottles and placards, at officers who had boosted their lines with water cannon.

 Witnesses said they saw several protesters being dragged from the crowd by their hair by baton-wielding police while another man was seen staggering away clutching a wound to his face.

 TV news reports monitored in Hong Kong showed protesters, including middle-aged women, in one-on-one fights with police.

 Macau has been a largely autonomous territory of China since 1999 when more than 400 years of Portuguese colonial rule came to an end. Political protests have been rare in Macau; unlike Hong Kong, Macau has a history of cooperation with communist leaders in China.

 The protest started peacefully with demonstrators calling on the government to implement laws to reduce the number of illegal workers flooding into Macau to cash in on a recent casino-led economic boom.

The demonstration was organized by 6 citizen groups including independent unions and rights of abode organization. Its themes were “anti-corruption, improve livelihood, reduce imported labour, stop illegal worker, housing right, family reunion right and harmonious society”.

 But the mood soured when they stopped outside a mortuarywhich was being prepared for the funeral of a brother of Macau’s political leader Edmund Ho.

 Lawmaker Coutinho said the protest, which gathered labour unions and civil service organisations, had been dominated by the police. “The police have abused their position in this protest,” he said.

 The protesters called on the government to give workers more fruits of the city’s booming economy. “The government is rich, the casinos are rich but nobody is looking out for the Macau people,” said one marcher, construction worker Lee Kin-yan.

 Unprecedented overseas investment in the city’s century-old casino sector, coupled with a surge in mainland Chinese tourism, has triggered double-digit economic expansion.

 The boom has created a labour shortage which, while pushing up wages, has also seen employers bring in cheaper foreign labour, threatening local jobs.

 “We are displeased with the labour crisis and the government’s lack of action in dealing with it,” said Ho Hen Kuok, president of the Macau Labour Union. “We don’t want to see illegal labour being given jobs.”

 The government later blamed the incident on manipulation by hostile forces and defended the police actions.