At least 6,000 miners tried to stop NUM members working for a construction company entering Maltby Colliery near Rotherham.

The men are working for an outside company but were required to become members of the NUM for the duration of their contract, and the miners say they should observe picket lines.

There was a tense stand-off early in the morning as the pit-workers arrived to prevent seven construction workers entering the colliery.

Jeering

They were met by a force of 700 police officers with 500 reinforcements waiting close by - all dressed in full riot gear.

Two pickets and three officers were injured in the violence, and five miners were arrested on breach of the peace offences.

Some of the strikers tore bricks off a nearby wall to throw them at the police lines and jeered when ordered to stop.

One of the missiles hit a policeman, dislocating his shoulder.

The senior officer in charge, Chief Superintendent John Nesbitt said the picketing had been "very, very heavy and intense".

He told reporters the miners had fired an air rifle at them and used catapults to shoot marbles.

But the pickets alleged the police had been too heavy-handed and said some of their number had been beaten by the police.

The seven construction workers were eventually escorted safely onto the site.

	E-mail this story to a friend