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IN PICS: Barcelona protests turn violent

The streets of central Barcelona were left strewn with burnt-out debris on Saturday morning after the fifth day of protests descended into a pitched battle with police.

Published: 19 October 2019 09:30 CEST

IN PICS: Barcelona protests turn violent

After the Friday's massive but largely peaceful rally in Barcelona, the trouble started when a group of radical separatists began massing around the city's police headquarters.

Riot police responded by charging the protesters, and advancing on them to keep them at a safe distance.

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Protesters were defiant, however, taunting police and soon after starting to use rubbish bins, street signs, and other street furniture to create a barricade.

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Protesters set alight plastic bins.

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

As the protests worsened, Spanish police responded increasingly heavy-handedly, charging protesters, and wielding batons to disperse them. According to the city's emergency services, about 152 people were injured during the clashes.

Photo: Josep Lago/AFP

By the early evening, a pitched battle had broken out, with protesters huddling behind makeshift barricades, throwing stones and other objects at police. Some were photographed using catapults and flare guns.

Police fired tear gas to try and disperse the crowd.

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

Later in the evening, police sent in trucks with water cannons to disperse the crowd and put out some of the fires.

Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP

By the time the protests had ended, the centre of the city was strewn with burnt out debris and broken barriers and street furniture.

Photo: Josep Lago/AFP

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Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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