Over 40,000 Bangladeshi garment workers demanding higher pay clashed with police again today.

The second day of a wages strike in the capital Dhaka saw dozens of people injured and at least 200 factories closed.

Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas as workers poured through the streets, building roadblocks with abandoned vehicles and logs.

Thousands of angry workers hurled stones at police and attacked factories in the industrial districts of Savar and Ashulia outside Dhaka, Industrial Police director Mustafizur Rahman said.

Around 100 factories had closed on Monday and 200 were closed yesterday as the protest intensified.

Over 50 people were reported wounded in the fresh violence after 30 were injured on Monday.

Ashulia was the site of a factory fire which claimed the lives of 121 clothing workers on November 24 last year.

International groups including US giant WalMart, Dutch retailer C&A and Hong Kong supplier Li & Fung were customers of the factory.

A government panel voted last week to raise the minimum wage to 5,300 takas (£42) a month - a rise of 77 per cent but still the lowest minimum wage in the world.

The workers are demanding 8,114 takas (£65).

Factory owners argue the proposed wage would increase production cost unrealistically.

Trade union leader Muhammad Ibrahim said that although the workers were demanding a £65 minimum monthly wage they were also protesting at the owners' rejection of the board's proposed rise.

The government pledged to raise wages by November, based on the board's recommendation, after strikes in September saw tens of thousands of workers take to the streets, burn down factories and clash with police.

Bangladesh, the world's second-largest garment manufacturing country after China, exports mainly to the US and Europe.

The sector employs about four million workers, mostly women.

It has come under scrutiny for its often harsh and unsafe conditions as well as poor pay.