Cambodian police open fire on garment worker protesters Cambodian military police opened fire with assault rifles on Friday to quell a protest by garment factory workers demanding higher pay, and human rights workers said at least four people were killed. Chaos during nationwide strikes erupted for a second day as security forces were deployed to halt a demonstration by thousands of workers who refused to move and threw bottles, stones and petrol bombs at an industrial zone in Phnom Penh. The clash represents an escalation of a political crisis in Cambodia, where striking workers and anti-government protesters have come together in a loose movement led by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Unions representing garment workers have joined opposition supporters protesting against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen to demand a rerun of an election in July that the opposition has said was rigged. The clashes took place at Canadia Industrial Park in Phnom Penh, home to dozens of factories that make clothing for western brands including Adidas, Puma and H&M Hennes & Mauritz. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights described the incident as "horrific" and said its own investigation and surveys of hospitals had found four people were killed and 21 were wounded. "Security forces must now put an immediate end to the use of live ammunition against civilians," the group's director, Naly Pilorge, said in a statement. Spokesmen for the national police and military police said they could not verify the number of casualties. The CNRP, led by former finance minister Sam Rainsy, has courted some 350,000 garment workers from nearly 500 factories across the country by promising to nearly double the monthly minimum wage to $160 (U.S.) if it wins a rerun of the July election, which Hun Sen is refusing to hold. The government is also refusing to raise the wage beyond $100 a month and has ordered factories to reopen. The garment industry is worth $5-billion a year to Cambodia, one of the world's poorest countries. Cheath Khemera, a senior labour officer at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, told Reuters it was too soon to assess the cost of the strikes, but he estimated each factory could be losing $20,000 to $30,000 a day. "This really impacts the industry seriously," he said.