Chinese workers have been called on to stage a nationwide strike in the wake of yesterday's brutal Army assault on central Beijing that left an estimated 1,000 people dead and thousands more injured.



With tens of thousands of heavily armed troops occupying the capital, and the death toll expected to go much higher, it was unclear whether the strike would go ahead, but dazed residents late today expressed outrage at the ruling Communist Party's

decision to use tanks, machine guns and automatic rifles against the unarmed civilian population.



With troops continuing to indiscriminately gun down residents close to Tiananmen Square, and soldiers and riot police assembled outside the main universities, the bloodshed appears far from over.



Beijing's Independent Students' Union, which led millions of Chinese in the massive pro-democracy demonstrations which have taken place over the past seven weeks, said the Army was using tear gas in an attempt to enter colleges where student leaders were attempting to avoid arrest.



A spokesman said they would "fight to the end", and predicted more upheaval once the killing stopped.



Based on hospital surveys, the union put the death toll at 3,000, with another 4,000 injured.



Foreign governments have deplored China's use of force.



The US President, Mr Bush, said in a statement: "I deeply deplore the decision to use force against peaceful demonstrators and the consequent loss of life.



"We have been urging and continue to urge nonviolence, restraint, and dialogue. Tragically, another course has been chosen.



"Again I urge a return to non-violent means for dealing with the current situation."



The Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, said China had to realise that credible authority could not be retained by the "killing of innocent people" and such actions were against China's international interests.



Late today, Australia's Ambassador to Beijing, Mr David Sadlier, was trying to gain an appointment with the Foreign Ministry to express Canberra's concern at the Army's role.



In Canberra, about 200 Chinese students marched on Parliament House in protest against the killings, and in Sydney a group of about 50 Chinese made an unsuccessful bid to rush the Chinese consulate during a protest.



Hong Kong residents reacted with horror and dismay to the bloodshed in Beijing, calling for mass protests and for Britain to prevent anything similar ever happening in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong stock and property markets are at flashpoint (Full report, Page 35).



In Beijing, a spokesmen for the Independent Students' Union said the students' struggle for political reform now rested with the Chinese people rising up against the party leadership, along with pressure from foreign governments.



"This is a critical moment in Chinese history, and we are paying for it with our blood," a student organiser said.



Authorities today branded the students and workers who have staged a peaceful sit-in in Tiananmen Square as "thugs and criminals" and claimed they were engaged in a "counter-revolutionary rebellion".



A month ago, the Communist Party called them "patriotic" and said the Army would never be used to harm the students.



In an indication that the military had been following the orders of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other elderly conservatives now in control of the party, the official media observed that assault troops had been"upholding the revolutionary spirit of senior leader, Deng Xiaoping".



Quoting an Army newspaper, the media praised the Army for its "great victory". After achieving the professed goal of clearing Tiananmen Square of the protesters, and their "Goddess of Democracy" statue, helicopter gunships, tanks and soldiers continued to patrol the streets this morning.



With the central city completely in their hands, troops used a machine gun to mow down about 12 students outside the Beijing Hotel.



Eyewitnesses said the students were running from the troops and were shot in the back.



They said a nine-year-old boy had also been killed.



Residents, many of them grieving for relatives killed in the assault on the city early today, sought some revenge this afternoon by burning some 100 Army trucks parked on the western outskirts of the capital.



But without weapons or any military support, there were reports of people being killed for allegedly breaching the martial law rules announced by the Prime Minister, Li Peng, but not enforced, 15 days ago.



Faced with an unarmed and, up to last night, largely non-violent, crowd in central Beijing, a highly disciplined force, believed to be the 27th Army, led by a relative of the Chinese President and elderly hardliner, Yang Shangkun, moved into the capital from several directions, supported by hundreds of tanks, armoured personnel carriers, trucks and artillery.



Beginning around 11pm yesterday, they pushed through resident barricades to the west of Tiananmen Square, firing tear gas, tracers and AK-47 automatic rifles.



Student leaders claimed some troops were using dum dum bullets, and deliberately killed wounded demonstrators.



A State-run radio broadcast put the dead in the "thousands", mostly civilians and including employees of the station.



The broadcast, which ran once before being changed, said, "When the Army convoys tried to break through, the soldiers continued spraying bullets indiscriminately about the streets." Quoting eye witnesses, it said some Army vehicles had run over foot soldiers who refused to march on residents.



A Chinese worker who saw the shooting of 12 students outside the Beijing Hotel described the encounter as "very, very terrible. Everyone was weeping".



"Students were shot in the back trying to run away," he said.



"I saw the heart of a young man my age, about 30, and it has been burst with a bullet."



A Communist Party member and academic said it would be impossible to call China's military the "People's Army" from now on.



"Whoever made the decision should be himself shot," he said. "If the Chinese people are silent for a while, it does not mean they won't make their voices heard.



"This is our worst ever unprovoked massacre, worse than Chaing Kai Shek and worse than what the Japanese did, and it is the action of dying men making their last desperate bid for authority."



With hospitals in the capital unable to cope with the thousands of people suffering gun shot wounds, doctors expect many more people to die.



Medical sources put the number of confirmed dead at about 500, but said it was impossible to accurately gauge the full extent of the slaying.



Observing the clashes last night and this morning, it was clear that the Army was treating the march into Tiananmen Square like a fully fledged war.



Bystanders were shot, people run over by tanks and students in the square gunned down without being given a chance.



Corpses littered Beijing's main boulevard, Chang An, with blood and torn limbs visible in several sections of the area outside the Forbidden City.



One student as he lay dying scrawled in blood, "Li Peng, you will never live in peace."



Several foreign journalists were bashed, and soldiers toured the main hotels confiscating film and audio tape.



At one stage, when the Army had secured Tiananmen Square, troops with automatic weapons turned eastwards down Chang An and sprayed bullets into onlookers, many of whom dropped to the ground.



It was a night of terror for residents who were not sure when the next onslaught would come.



"It has been old people, young people and children, the soldiers don't care who they kill," one explained.