BARCELONA (Spain): Barcelona and Real Madrid played out a goalless draw in La Liga Clasico, but the game was overshadowed by violent clashes between Catalan independence protestors and police outside Camp Nou.
Masked protesters set bins on fire and threw rocks and glass bottles at police who responded with foam bullets near Camp Nou on Wednesday.
Forty-six people were lightly injured in the clashes, including eight who needed to be taken to hospital. Five people were arrested, a police spokesman said.
The protesters, many of them carrying Catalan separatist flags, began setting up barricades in the middle of the street, which they then set on fire after police arrived in dozens of vans, AFP reported.
Demonstrators rocked a police van and took down street signs that they added to the barricade, while some people sought shelter inside a bar.
Calm returned to the street as fans began to leave the stadium at the end of the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
Police closed the south exits of the stadium leading to the street where the clashes took place and asked fans to leave the venue through the north exits for “security reasons”.
These were the first violent incidents in Catalonia since October when Spain’s top court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders over their role in a failed 2017 bid for independence, triggering days of protests that sometimes ended in clashes with police.
The original fixture in October had to be postponed due to the violent demonstrations across the wealthy northeastern region.
Protestors had begun gathering at the four corners of the stadium, blocking traffic, four hours before kick-off. Nearly 5,000 people surrounded the stadium, according to police.
