Vendor Clash

[Anchor Lead]

Tap water and power supply was cut at the old Noryangjin Market, where vendors refusing to relocate to a new building are still running their businesses. Three people were injured in a clash between the vendors and employees from the Fisheries Cooperation over how the officials handled the outage.

[Pkg]

Vendors at the old Noryangjin Fish Market scuffle with officials from the Fisheries Cooperation. The clash began when the vendors blocked an auction vehicle loaded with fisheries at the entrance of the new market. Three vendors have been injured in the scuffle. The vehicle eventually had to cross over flower beds in front of the market to enter the facility. The conflict occurred on Monday morning after the Fisheries Cooperative officials severed tap water and power supply at the old fish market.

[Soundbite] Yoon Heon-joo(Committee for Modernization of Noryangjin Fish Market) : "Tap water and electricity are essential at a fish market. This is the first blackout in 40 years. Nothing like this has happened before."

However, the Fisheries Cooperative says that it has notified the vendors multiple times that they must relocate to the new facility.

[Soundbite] Lim Hyun-woo(Fisheries Cooperative official) : "We have filed four eviction lawsuits so far, but we still cannot execute the law due to opposition from vendors."

The conflict will likely continue for the time being, as the Fisheries Cooperative has no plans to resume water and power supply until the vendors withdraw from the old facility, all the while the vendors are refusing to relocate as well.