200 injured in police clashes with Catalan separatists

BARCELONA: Nearly 200 people were hurt in another night of violent clashes in Catalonia, authorities said on Saturday, after radical separatists hurled rocks and fireworks at police who responded with teargas and rubber bullets.

In Barcelona, which resembled a chaotic battleground on Friday, 152 people were injured, with dozens more hurt in the rest of Catalonia, taking the total to 182.

The deterioration came on the fifth consecutive day of protests in the Catalan capital and elsewhere over a Spanish court’s jailing of nine separatist leaders on sedition charges over a failed independence bid two years ago.

Emergency services had already reported 500 injured since Monday even before the latest clashes erupted.

According to the interior ministry, 83 people were detained in the overnight violence, in addition to the 128 arrests police had reported before Friday’s march.

Early on Saturday, the air in the Catalan capital was still heavy with a burning stench as municipal workers cleared the streets of broken glass, rocks and rubber bullets, and repaired pavements where bricks had been ripped out.

Around half a million people had rallied in Barcelona on Friday in the biggest gathering since Monday’s court ruling as separatists also called a general strike in the major tourist destination.