By Lee Jae-won
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, Aug 5 (Reuters) - South Korean police in full riot gear descended on autoworkers at embattled Ssangyong Motor Co on Wednesday in an operation to break up a sit-in by unionists demanding to keep their jobs.
Cash-strapped Ssangyong, which is South Korea's smallest automaker and currently under court receivership, had been pushing to cut more than a third of its workforce of 2,600 in a bid to resuscitate the company.
About 600 laid-off workers have occupied its main factory for more than 70 days, halting production lines at a mushrooming cost that the company said has now exceeded 300 billion won ($245.9 million).
Police commandos descended from helicopters onto the roofs of the assembly plant in Pyeongtaek, about 80 km south of the capital Seoul, and two warehouse buildings that store highly flammable materials used to paint automobiles.
Most of the plant's facilities are now under police control except the main paint warehouse, where strikers are blockading the doors and armed with blowtorches, according to a Reuters photographer on the scene.
The operation capped days of cautiously executed planning to close in on the striking workers using tear gas sprayed from helicopters hovering from above and cutting off water supplies to the buildings in which they have blockaded themselves.
Ssangyong's union has also demanded an infusion of government funds to rescue the troubled company. The government has rejected the proposal.
Ssangyong shares tumbled nearly 15 percent on Wednesday. Analysts said worries about the company's liquidation outweighed earlier hopes it may be resuscitated.
Once the court decides on a liquidation, it will sell the company's assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors, company officials have said.
In May, the Seoul Central District Court ordered Ssangyong to draw up a survival plan by mid-September.
The maker of the Rexton sport utility vehicle is 51 percent owned by top Chinese car maker SAIC Motor Corp. (Writing by Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)