Madrid, August 22 (EFE) .- Spanish police have interrupted several open-air public gatherings this weekend for failing to comply with health restrictions linked to Covid-19.

Although the fifth wave of infection continues to decline in Spain, most of the country is still at very high risk of transmission, with an average incidence of 345 cases per 100,000 people in 14 days.

On Friday and Saturday evening, police dispersed more than 11,500 people during several rallies in Barcelona, ​​mainly at parties in the Gracia district of the capital of the Catalonia region and from the city’s beaches.

The increase in the number of such gatherings is largely due to the end of the curfew in Catalan municipalities since last Thursday, when a court banned an extension of the regional government measure.

On Sunday, the fifth consecutive night of incidents, police arrested 10 people while three policemen were injured in the northern coastal city of San Sebastian, while monitoring compliance with public health measures; groups of rioters smashed shop windows, burned trash cans and threw objects.

Early Saturday morning, the Civil Guard dispersed 300 people participating in a “botellón” (drinking in public) on a beach in La Coruña (north-west). EFE

nac-jl / ks