Riot police firing rubber pellets clashed with Basque separatist protesters who set trash bins ablaze Sunday after a banned rally in the northern city of San Sebastian, AP reported. Authorities arrested five people, the Basque Interior Ministry said. It could not confirm news reports that at least 10 others were injured, including several bystanders. Spanish television showed footage of flaming barricades set up near the old quarter of San Sebastian, where the outlawed separatist party Batasuna held a rally in defiance of a court order. Masked youths hurled rocks at police. Police in helmets and wielding truncheons charged at groups of protesters who tried to assemble later on a major boulevard where they had hoped earlier to hold the demonstration but were prevented by Basque authorities, the ministry said. The ministry declined to estimate how many people attended the rally, but news reports said it was more than 1,000, including senior leaders of the party, outlawed in 2003 on grounds of being part of the armed separatist group ETA. After Batasuna last week announced plans to hold the rally, the Basque Interior Ministry banned the demonstration, saying the party could not hold rallies because it was a banned organization.
