Jakarta – Indonesian police beat up protesting textile workers here Tuesday to prevent them from marching to the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in the city's business district, a witness said.

Several of the laid-off factory workers were injured when around 50 mobile brigade police waded into the crowd of 250, lashing them with rattan sticks, an AFP reporter said. The demonstrators had just emerged from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) in Central Jakarta to march to the ILO office.

The workers then retreated into the LBH parking lot, the reporter said, adding some of those injured in the clash were taken inside the building. The number of the injured was not immediately known.

Two additional mobile brigade trucks arrived on the scene not long after with the earlier 50 already guarding outside the office. The Indonesian textile industry is among the worst-hit in the current economic crisis, which has cost millions of jobs.