Some 300,000 protest in Barcelona: city police

Protesters wave Catalan pro-independence ‘Estelada’ flags as they gather at the Placa de la Universitat square in Barcelona during a general strike in Catalonia called by Catalan unions on October 3, 2017. (AFP)

BARCELONA: Shouting “occupation forces out” and “the streets will always be ours,” some 300,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona Tuesday, city police said, to protest police violence during a banned weekend independence referendum in Catalonia.
Columns of people converged on the city center as the region went on general strike, a police helicopter flying overhead, drawing angry whistles as Catalans reel from the unrest that marred parts of the Spanish region on Sunday.