More than 50 people were detained since yesterday across the Catalonia autonomous region of Spain as the general strike grew into public unrest and clashes with police, the local law enforcement said on Saturday
BARCELONA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2019) More than 50 people were detained since yesterday across the Catalonia autonomous region of Spain as the general strike grew into public unrest and clashes with police, the local law enforcement said on Saturday.
According to the Catalan autonomous police force, Mossos de Escuadra, a total of 54 people have been detained during Friday and overnight to Saturday, while 18 law enforcement officers have sustained injuries.
The regional medical service said that in Barcelona alone 152 people had received medical assistance, of them 50 had been transferred to a hospital.
The general strike in Catalonia began on Friday and promptly grew into public unrest, with the epicenter in the Catalan capital city Barcelona. Protesters were blocking roads, ripping off the street signs, breaking the windows of nearby stores and eventually clashed with law enforcement near the National Police building. They threw bricks, bottles, crackers and other objects onto the police and burned carton boxes. Police had to fire rubber bullets and tear gas to constrain them. When protesters set several barricades on fire, police had to use water cannons.
Catalonia has been marred in public unrest since Monday. Mass demonstrations have been bought about by the ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court to sentence nine Catalan politicians, involved in organizing the 2017 independence referendum, to 9-13 years in prison on sedition charges and other three to fines over disobedience. Later that day, the court issued European and international arrest warrants for former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont.
