Harare - A mob seized a white-owned farm and opened fire on farm workers on the property, seriously injuring three of them, victims of the attack said on Friday.

The farm was being seized for a deputy governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, according to farmers union members.

The shooting on Wilfrieda farm in the Chinhoyi district about 100 km north of Harare marked a serious worsening of tensions in the country and its coalition government amid a sudden renewal of violent incidents led by President Robert Mugabe's security forces and supporters.

It follows the decision by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai two weeks ago to partially disengage from the unity government over Mugabe's refusal to carry out agreed-to democratic reforms.

Two male workers and a woman were in hospital in Harare with severe gunshot wounds inflicted by rubber bullets, doctors there said. Rubber bullets, normally fired by automatic rifles, are legally issued in Zimbabwe only to the armed forces.

A dozen more workers were blasted with shotgun pellets and were treated by doctors in Chinhoyi.

Farm union officials said it was believed to be the first time firearms had been turned on farmers or their labourers since the start in 2000 of Mugabe's campaign to dispossess whites of their farms.

The invaders on Wilfrieda also burnt down half of the workers houses in a bid to force them to leave the farm. Worker Stanford Kunzemutema, who suffered head injuries, said from a doctor's surgery that he and 50 other farm residents were assaulted with wire and sticks from the start of the dawn raid until 14:00.

The violence stopped, he said, when police from a station 10 km away arrived several hours after being called. Police did nothing to the attackers, but "took one of us to make a statement," Kunzemutema said.

Recent years have seen many clashes between invaders and farm workers, who stand to lose the jobs and all their possessions.

The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe said this week that 60 000 workers had been made homeless this year.

By The Times (SA)