Spanish police carrying shields and weapons and backed by dozens of riot vans charged to try to disperse Catalan pro-independence protesters late on Saturday who had gathered outside police headquarters in central Barcelona. Police armed with batons forcing their way through the thousands-strong crowd while demonstrators threw stones and flares.
The police action followed a two-hour standoff, during which demonstrators threw bottles, balls and rubber bullets at officers. Hundreds of thousands in Spain’s restive region of Catalonia protested Saturday in Barcelona against the imprisonment of nine separatist leaders for their roles in an illegal 2017 secession bid.
