CLASHES broke out in South Korea when security guards tried to break up a protest by Opposition MPs that has paralysed the country’s parliament for weeks.

Several people were injured in the scuffle that broke out today when about 200 guards began forcibly removing MPs holding a sit-in in the parliament building.

Television footage showed security guards grabbing some of the MPs by the arms and legs, while others linked arms and chanted slogans in protest.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, even during the (late president Park Chung-hee’s) Yushin dictatorship,” said Chung Sei-kyun, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, who led the protest.

Authorities at the National Assembly had earlier asked the party to end its sit-in and remove banners from the building’s walls.  [AFP]