Spain: 8 injured in forced eviction

Eight people were injured Thursday in a battle between immigrant families and Spanish police trying to tear down shacks in a shanty town housing some 30,000 people outside Madrid.

A police spokeswoman said six officers and two Moroccans were slightly injured in nearly an hour of fighting at the Canada Real Galiana settlement. Spanish National Radio said the immigrants hurled gas bottles and rocks at the officers.

The police were acting on a court order to clear several settlements, a spokeswoman for Madrid's housing department said.

She said the city has been looking to clear the city of shanty settlements and rehouse their occupants elsewhere for several years.

Authorities estimate some 30,000 people, mostly Moroccan and Romanian immigrants, live in shanties in the Canada Real Galiana settlement. Madrid has several shanty settlements, most located around its southern industrial belt.

Source: International Herald Tribune (English)

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