Barcelona ERUPTS: Riots break out as Catalonia protesters pelt police with BRICKS
BARCELONA protests have broken out into violence with Catalonia independence demonstrators throwing missiles at riot police.
By JOE DUGGAN
Express.co.uk
Fri, Dec 21, 2018
Around 30 police officers were injured during the violent clashes as 11 protesters who let off flares and burned an image of the Spanish King Felipe VI were arrested. Officers dragged masked protesters from roads on Friday who were angry with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holding his weekly cabinet meeting in a building in the middle of the city. The violence marked a significant rise in tensions between protestors who support an independent Catalan state.
Demonstrators wearing high-viz vests replicated the Gilet-Jaunes protests which swept through France and Belgium earlier this month.
They sat on the AP7 highway, which runs the length of Spain’s Mediterranean coast, in protest at Mr Sanchez’s meeting.
Roads were also piled with tyres blocking around 40 routes.
The protesters have grown tired of a lack of action from the central Spanish government after Catalan declared independence in an illegitimate referendum last year.
Demonstrator Joan Toll said: “If you think about what has happened in the last year, we have achieved nothing. We are only being repressed more.”
The 44-year-old chemist added: “No one wants to see violence but people are getting tired.”
The Demonstrators hurled smoke bombs at Catalan Mossos police with one thug shown attacking a police van with a steel pole.
Another masked yob was photographed preparing to launch a missile towards police lines.
More than 9,000 police officers are on duty across the region as authorities brace themselves for disorder.
Spanish TV reporter Cake Minuesa was among those injured.
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