WATCH: Richards Bay Port protesters mow down police van using bulldozers

Front-end loader operators made the police van look like a tin can.

The overturned police van. Picture: Quintin Pinchin

The protest situation at the Port entrance in Newark Road, Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal turned violent on Tuesday morning, as police fired shots and contractors bulldozed down infrastructure – rolling a police van with the digger bin – at the main entrance.

The Zululand Observer reports that community members were advised to stay away from the area, and employers sent staff home for their own safety.

The workers are understood to be unhappy about working conditions.

Shots had reportedly been fired by the police and one policeman warned onlookers that they were at risk.

According to a video from Dylan Meyrick of IPSS medical rescue, the earth-moving machines drove towards a police contingent at the port and the police van was crushed.