Dozens Injured in Drunken Spanish Riots

Mass street-drinking sessions fueled clashes between Spanish youths and riot police Saturday, leaving 80 people injured and 70 arrested in Barcelona and Salamanca, police said.

Tens of thousands of young people gathered Friday night in cities around Spain in an attempt to hold the biggest street drinking session, called a botellon, or “big bottle.” In the southern city of Granada, police said 25,000 people joined the botellon.

The most serious violence occurred in Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city, where 68 people, including 37 police, were injured and 54 rioters arrested.

Barcelona police used baton charges and fired rubber bullets to try to control the youths, who had been throwing bottles and cans, according to media reports.

The Barcelona event degenerated into battles between police and drinkers in the narrow streets of the city center that lasted most of the night.

Police blamed the disturbances on about 200 people who they said were out to cause trouble.

An additional 12 people were injured and 16 arrested, including an Italian and a German, in clashes in the historic university city of Salamanca, 110 miles northwest of Madrid, officials said.

A government official in Salamanca, Jesus Malaga, said about 2,000 young people gathered early Saturday and about 100 of them set fire to trash containers.

A firefighter and five police officers were among the injured when people in the crowd started throwing objects, he said.

The botellon has become part of city life in Spain in recent years. Teenagers, bored at home and too poor to go to bars, buy beer, spirits and cartons of wine from food stores and lounge around plazas, drinking the night away.

Because of the noise and filth brought by the botellon, many city councils banned drinking on the streets.

Police patrol hot spots during weekends, moving along groups of teenagers who mix up cheap cocktails or calimocho -- red wine and cola.

Youths rallied revelers Friday by e-mail and text messages for macrobotellones in 20 cities around Spain, and authorities pleaded with parents to keep their children under control and warned of the danger of underage drinking.