Police in Vanuatu have used tear gas to disperse an angry crowd at the National Provident Fund building in the capital, Port Vila, after about 500 people gathered there demanding to withdraw their savings, Radio Australia reported on Monday .

Investors in the Vanuatu National Provident Fund have been gathering outside its offices in Port Vila and Santo since before Christmas in an attempt to withdraw their savings.

"They have been angered by the Vanuatu ombudsman's report published last month which said senior politicians and their supporters had been granted housing loans from the Provident Fund worth millions of dollars," the radio said.

The Fund was refusing to grant withdrawals, resulting in Monday's protest, in which staff and journalists were trapped inside the building and windows were broken.

"One witness inside said the building was shaking," the radio said.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and there were some minor injuries.

The radio said there was "deep public anger" in Vanuatu over the loans affair, "which is sure to be an issue in national elections which will be announced within the next few days".

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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