Riot police used tear gas to halt the protetsters
Angry protesters are drenched by water cannons, below, as they march on the embassy
Riot police use tear gas and water cannons to halt march on British embassy in Malaysia
Police using water cannons, tear gas and batons clashed with ethnic Indians marching on the British Embassy in Malaysia yesterday.
Some 100,000 protesters were trying to hand in a petition demanding the UK pays £2trillion in compensation for 'injustices' said to have begun in the colonial era.
But they were forced to abandon their efforts after riot police blocked off the main roads to the embassy in the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Dozens of police and demonstrators were wounded and more than 200 arrested during the clashes.
The 100,000-signature petition is in support of a legal action launched in London in August to seek compensation for the country's poor Indian minority.
The Hindu Rights Action Force said it planned to put the document into the hands of the Queen when its members visit London in January.
It wants her to appoint a QC to represent it in the claim against the British Government.
The group believes Britain, which ended colonial rule in 1957, is to blame for the plight of impoverished Indians in Malaysia as it first brought them to work as labourers in what was then Malaya.
Ethnic Indians, who make up about 7 per cent of Malaysia's population, say they are discriminated against by the majority Malays and Chinese.
One organiser of the demo said: "Malaysian Indians have never gathered in such large numbers in this way."
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