Protesters clashed with police and security guards outside Shanghai's Ikea superstore again yesterday as violence escalated.
One female protester was injured in scuffles early yesterday morning, and a man suffered a blow to the head in a second escalation around lunchtime. The protesters said they had been attacked by security guards who refused to let them inside.
The furniture store maintains the protesters are drivers of unlicensed taxis and their touts who are 'no longer welcome' in the shop.
However, the protesters reacted angrily to allegations that they were 'black car' drivers or 'yellow oxen' - colloquial terms for unlicensed taxis and their touts.
'What is a yellow ox? Do we have labels on our foreheads?' said one man in his mid-30s. 'We are being discriminated against. My boss sent me here from Hangzhou [in Zhejiang ] to buy chairs, but they haven't let us in for three days.'
