BARCELONA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2019) At least 25 people were injured during violent protests that gripped the main Catalan city of Barcelona as night fell on Friday, with five more hurt in two other cities in the region.
Chaotic scenes followed a largely peaceful demonstration of a half a million people who rallied against conviction of former Catalan leaders on sedition charges earlier in the day.
Masked protesters gathered near the national police headquarters. They set barricades alight, tore out road signs, overturned trash containers and threw stones at the police, who lashed out with batons and volleys of rubber bullets.
Protests began on Monday after a court in Madrid gave prison terms ranging from nine to 13 years to nine ex-Catalan officials� for their role in organizing the 2017 independence vote.
The acting Spanish interior minister said more than a hundred people had been detained across the region in the past five days and over 500 had been injured, 200 of them police officers.
