German authorities have 60 days to decide whether to extradite region’s former president Carles Puigdemont to Spain and comes five months after he went on run after vote on independence.
Thousands of Catalan separatists faced off with police in Catalonia on Sunday following the arrest in Germany of the region’s former president Carles Puigdemont five months after he fled Spain.
Catalan police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government’s representative in Barcelona, the capital of the wealthy northeastern region.
Officers fired warning shots in the air to try to contain the demonstrators, who pushed large recycling containers towards police. Some people threw glass bottles, cans and eggs at police.
Seventy-nine people were injured during the clashes in Barcelona, mainly with bruises, including 13 police officers, emergency services said.
Another seven people were injured at a protest in Lleida, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) west of Barcelona and one person was injured in Tarragona to the south.
TRT World spoke to journalist Marah Rayan from Madrid, who says the Spanish government has been tight-lipped on Puidgemont’s arrest