Over 100 workers taken hostage in Brazil

Equipped with homemade weapons like bows and arrows, a group of around 300 people took control of an under construction dam in the Amazon jungle in Brazil and held over 100 workers hostage.

Equipped with homemade weapons like bows and arrows, a group of around 300 people took control of an under construction dam in the Amazon jungle in Brazil and held over 100 workers hostage.

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The protesters did not threaten the workers at the Dardanelos hydroelectric dam in Aripuana city on Sunday but ordered them to move off to their barracks.

"They did not at any time threaten their lives. They calmly asked them to go to their lodgings," said Antonio Carlos Ferreira de Aquino, regional coordinator of the Brazilian National Indian Foundation.

The foundation handles government relations with the locals, who are demanding compensation for the "social, cultural and environmental" impact of the dam.

The construction firm allegedly blew up part of an archaeological site considered sacred by the people of the region, de Aquino said..