Greece vows to find farm attackers

ATHENS, Greece - Greek officials on Thursday promised "swift and exemplary" punishment for three strawberry plantation foremen who allegedly shot and injured 29 Bangladeshi laborers protesting late pay.

Police are seeking the three suspects who disappeared after Wednesday's shootings, which occurred during a confrontation with about 200 Bangladeshi farm workers in the country's rural south who say they have not been paid for half a year.

Seven Bangladeshi workers were still receiving hospital treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou condemned the "inhuman, unprecedented, and shameful" shootings near the village of Manolada.

The plastic-topped greenhouses that cover Manolada's broad plains account for most of Greece's strawberry output, using cheap labor by Asian immigrants often housed in primitive conditions. There have been several attacks on migrant strawberry workers in recent years, but Wednesday's was the worst so far.

Political parties and trade unions expressed shock, and about 100 people took part in a protest by labor groups outside the Labor Ministry in Athens.

Authorities have arrested the owner of the farm, which is about 160 miles southwest of Athens. On Thursday, they also arrested a man on suspicion of hiding the three fugitives.