Tourists left terrified by street battles

A SCOTS holidaymaker has told how she and her boyfriend cowered in fear in a Barcelona hotel room during four days of violent riots in the city.

Thousands of protesters have been involved in battles with police since nine Catalan separatist leaders were jailed on Monday.

Caitlin Fitzpatrick, 23, and Kieran Blackwood, 26, both from Glasgow, saw police fire rubber bullets into crowds from their hotel in the Gothic Quarter.

Caitlin said: “When we arrived at our hotel, the manager told us it wasn’t safe to leave and police wouldn’t know we were tourists.

“It’s our first time in Barcelona. We were terrified of what we’d wake up to.

“It was my birthday on Tuesday and we were told not to leave the hotel. We had dinner booked at a restaurant but taxis were refusing to take us anywhere, so we decided to walk.

“When we came out of the restaurant, we had to walk through thousands of protesters and every street was set on fire.”

Caitlin added: “We were asleep in our BY SAMANTHA CROAL samantha.croal@reachplc.com room when we were woken by loud bangs and noise around 2am. We looked out and armed police were running at hundreds of protesters.

“There were about 12 riot vans parked outside and they deployed rubber bullets.

“It’s been a nightmare. We’ve not known what’s been going on apart from what we are seeing with our own eyes.

“We weren’t contacted with a travel warning before we flew out, so we didn’t know we would face this level of violence.”

At least 80 people, including 46 police officers, have been injured since clashes began on Monday.

Police said protesters set up flaming barricades in the streets and threw petrol bombs and fireworks.

A police helicopter also was targeted by five “pyrotechnic objects”, according to the regional police force.

The Foreign Office has issued a travel warning for holidaymakers heading to Barcelona and other areas of Catalonia.