Police broke up the protest sit-in of some 8,000 striking bank unionists at Kookmin Bank's training center in Koyang, in suburban Seoul in a blitzkrieg raid Wednesday morning.

However, police failed to arrest union leaders, including Lee Kyong-soo and Kim Chol-hong, chairmen of the trade unions of Kookmin and Housing & Commercial Bank, respectively, who had secretly withdrawn from the site earlier.

Riot police received little physical resistance from the unionists, with no serious clashes reported.

Police stormed the center at 8 a.m. and dispersed the striking Kookmin and H&CB employees that had been holed up there for six straight days.

The sit-in protest came after the two banks suddenly announced merger plans last Friday.

Prior to the raid, the Koyang police informed the head of the training center about the move, presenting him with a warrant. Stand-by riot police swept over the center's compound in just 10 minutes.