Disturbances in Etxebarri: mob attacks police during San Antonio festivities
An ertzaina had to be taken to hospital after being struck by a bottle during an operation in the Kukullaga district. Two brothers were arrested.
Disturbances in Etxebarri: mob attacks police during San Antonio festivities
In the early hours of Saturday to Sunday, the Kukullaga district in Etxebarri (Biscay) experienced serious clashes during the patron saint festivities. A police operation spiralled out of control when a crowd attacked the officers, leaving one ertzaina injured.
It all began with the arrest of a young man by the Local Police, accused of assaulting an authority figure within the festive grounds. According to information provided by the Security Department of the Basque Country Government, as reported by the newspaper ABC, a relative of the arrested person attempted to prevent him being taken to the police station, hitting the patrol car and insulting the uniformed officers.
A local officer got out of the car to intervene, but found himself surrounded by dozens of individuals with hostile intentions. The brother of the detainee, a 19-year-old man with Spanish nationality, physically assaulted the police officer, pushing him and punching him in the face. The ertzainas arrived at the scene to reinforce their local counterparts.
The situation escalated when around a hundred attendees at the street party began throwing glass bottles at the deployed officers. An officer from the Ertzaintza received an impact to the skull that required medical attention at a hospital.
Deployment of the Mobile Brigade, the autonomous police's public order unit, was necessary to quell the disturbances and restore normality. The two arrested individuals, who are brothers, spent the night in police custody and were released on provisional liberty the following day pending summons to court.
The Security Councillor, Bingen Zupiria, had previously pointed out the risk of such confrontations with police forces occurring, in a climate of hostility promoted by sectors of the Basque far left.
Source: ABC