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In Spain, videos showed protesters setting plastic garbage containers alight with flares, causing a blaze that destroyed at least one car. They also hurled rocks at the glass front door of a bank branch.
Some students made their way to the University of Barcelona and took refuge from riot police in a plaza inside the campus, denying that they started the violence.
Student Pau Bronsoms, 22, said police used truncheons to hit protesters and fired rubber bullets. ”We did not expect this degree of repression,” he said. “Nobody broke anything until they charged.”
A regional police official in Barcelona declined comment on tactics used to break up the demonstration, speaking on condition of anonymity because of department policy.
Additional reporting by AP
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