A migrant worker severely injured when a dispute over unpaid salaries turned violent in south China's Guangdong Province died in hospital late on Tuesday, according to the local government.

Lei Mingzhong, a migrant worker from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, died at 10:30 PM. Local government officials had visited the hospital and consoled Lei's family when Lei was fighting for his life.

Lei, the most seriously injured in the conflict and supported by a pacemaker and breathing apparatus, had been reported to be "brain dead".

The government of Heyuan city, where the conflict occurred, held a press conference on Tuesday to say the incident had been identified as "a violent conflict triggered by a dispute over economic contracts", rather than a mass assault on migrant workers.

Huang Juping, a government spokesperson, said about 100 migrant workers were incited by their Shenzhen-based employer, Qiutian Construction Co., to ask for a rise from Fuyuan Hydropower Development Co., the proprietor of the hydropower station where they were working.

Qiutian Co. said it had held back workers' pay for four months because Fuyuan refused to compensate it for losses suffered when some of the company's equipment and tools were washed away in flash floods last summer.

The migrant workers, headed by Qiu Haodi, a Qiutian Co. manager, started to dismantle installations at the power station after their request was turned down, when "gangsters" armed with spades, axes and steel pipes attacked them.

The workers had been organized to petition the local government on Friday afternoon. After several hours of government mediation, they returned home.

Fuyuan had agreed to pay the medical costs of the injured workers. Construction of the hydropower station would be suspended until all "divergences" had been solved between the two companies.

An investigation into the conflict is still underway.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2007)