Police in Bolivia have broken up a group of protesting miners who had been staging a hunger strike in one of the main squares of the capital, La Paz.

The hunger strike began two days ago as part of a demand for almost six million dollars in benefit payments to thousands of unemployed workers from the Catavi mine which closed twelve years ago.

A Bolivian Supreme court recently ordered the government to pay the money plus interest and fines but the state mining corporation, Comibol, has challenged the ruling. .