South Korean police took into custody more than 120 people who staged violent protests over the weekend demanding a renegotiation of a U.S. beef import deal.
About 1,700 people gathered at Jongno street in central Seoul at 9 p.m. Sunday and hundreds of them stayed into the early morning hours. The protesters rallied in several groups, unable to enter their usual protest venue at Seoul City Hall plaza, which had been sealed off by police buses.
Police detained about 70 people into custody early Monday for illegally occupying roads.
About 18,000 people also participated in the largest gathering since June 10.
Police fired water cannons and fire extinguishers and used batons against protestors who hurled water bottles and eggs at them and tried to pull away police buses with ropes.
The protests are expected to continue this week as organizers plan massive demonstrations. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the more radical of South Korea's two umbrella labor groups, will launch a one-day general strike to join the beef strike Wednesday.
Meanwhile, police raided the offices of two leading civic groups that organized the beef demonstrations, including the People's Solidarity for Participatory Government, Monday morning.
South Korea last week lifted a ban on U.S. beef imports and began quarantine inspections of American meat that has been in storage since imports were suspended last October.