HAVANA (AP) — Independent vendors in eastern Cuba staged a highly unusual protest after state inspectors seized allegedly unauthorized goods from their stalls, prompting local authorities to promise to seek a solution to their grievances, witnesses and activists said Friday.

Home furnishings vendor William Zaldivar said by telephone that goods were confiscated from about a half-dozen vendors, who were fined 700 pesos ($28) and stripped of their business licenses during Tuesday’s inspection.