Trucks set on fire in Chile

Santiago, Aug 26 (IANS/EFE) Hooded assailants intercepted two freight trucks, pulled out the drivers and set the vehicles on fire in a southern town in Chile.

The incident took place Wednesday in Araucania region, where ethnic Mapuche Indian activists have torched vehicles, highway toll booths and lumber shipments on earlier occasions as part of a protest to reclaim ancestral lands from business and forest products companies.

The assailants felled trees to block a stretch of road between Angol, capital of Malleco province, and Collipulli town. When a truck loaded with lumber stopped in front of the barrier, the hooded attackers brandished guns to force the driver out and then set the vehicle on fire.

The assailants repeated the process with a second truck.

The driver of the first vehicle managed to escape, and met a police patrol nearby, but the attackers were gone by the time the police reached the scene.

–IANS/EFE