Barcelona, Spain - riot police firing rubber bullets and wielding truncheons clashed Friday with protesters as authorities freed a makeshift camp set up under a Spain-wide demonstration against the country's economic problems. More than 100 people were injured.
The problem started when police tried to clear protesters from a main square in Barcelona for the garbage collectors may clean before possible celebrations after a football game Saturday night.
Many protesters, who are angry about the high unemployment rate, measures anti-austerity and handling of the economy politicians, refused to move. TV images showed agents beating demonstrators and by dragging on the ground. Some wound up with bloodied hands and heads or broken limbs.
Felip Puig, spokesman of the Ministry of the regional interior of Catalonia, said 84 protesters and 37 police were injured. Agents were seen carrying persons more far, Puig did not say how many had been arrested but he did not say how serious injuries.
He said one protester had a broken arm.
"I can assure you that there was aggression against the police with rocks, pieces of wood, shots, swinging, with violence, with sprays," said Puig.
He said police had fired six rubber bullets, 12 projectiles "not specified" and 236 shots of empty warning shots.
The demonstrators were allowed to return to the plaza, which has been occupied by protesters for nearly two weeks, after that it has been cleaned up.
Puig justified action authorities saying the plaza was to be cleaned because football fans will gather there Saturday night after the final of the Champions League between Barcelona and Manchester United in London.
Scuffles also broke out between authorities and demonstrators in the city of Lleida, West of Barcelona. Two people were arrested, the news agency Europa Press.
United behind the slogan "democracy real Now", tens of thousands of young people especially have established camps protest 24 hours a day in the cities and town across the Spain from May 15 to complain about the Government economic crisis management and what they see as a corrupt party system policy.
Nearly two years of recession have left the Spain with a rate of 21.3%, the highest unemployment in the euro area and the major debt problems. The rate jumps to 35 percent for people aged 16 to 29, and Spanish many young and highly educated cannot find a job as the struggles of the No. 4 euro area economy.
The largest demonstration was Puerta del Sol in Madrid square where of tens of thousands of people held protests every night for almost a week before regional elections last weekend. Last Friday, about 500 people were still camping in the plaza, but they indicated that they could move several days.
Riot police have monitored the demonstrators in Madrid, but did not intervene. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Friday that he was considering a request by the regional Government of Madrid to dismantle the zone to protest the city because of complaints by traders that business suffers in the zone key tourism.
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Ciaran Giles, Harold Heckle, Daniel Woolls and Alan Clendenning contributed to this report from Madrid.
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