Police have arrested 50 people in central Argentina for trying to loot supermarkets, authorities say.
Five of the suspects arrested in Rosario city were Chinese, Santa Fe provincial public safety official Matias Drivet said on Wednesday.
He said the Chinese citizens were business owners who were arrested when they tried to protect their businesses, and fired shots at would-be looters.
The government says that five per cent of the population of 40 million lives in poverty but private estimates put the figure at more than 25 per cent, or up to 11 million people.
Rosario, a city of 1.2 million inhabitants, is located about 300 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires.
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