Spanish police and militant elements in a thousands-strong crowd of protesters clashed in the streets of Barcelona close to police headquarters late on Saturday, as a pro-independence demonstration by a direct action group turned violent.

After a largely peaceful gathering of an estimated 350,000 pro-independence supporters jammed the centre of the city earlier in the day, a second crowd began to form around Barcelona’s police headquarters about 7.30pm. As the crowd grew to around 10,000, according to police estimates, TV footage showed protesters throwing bottles, balls and rubber bullets at officers.

The evening demonstration was organised by CDR, a pro-independence pressure group that favours direct action and has cut railways and roads as well as trying to storm the regional parliament.

Police carrying shields and weapons and backed by some 20 riot vans charged the demonstrators in an attempt to disperse them, splitting the crowd in two along Via Laietana near the police HQ.

Tourist trade counts the cost as separatist riots blight Barcelona Read more

Reuters TV footage showed police armed with batons forcing their way through the crowd while demonstrators threw stones and flares. News channel 24h showed police grappling one-on-one with demonstrators, who fell back before reforming their lines.

Police dispersed some protesters through Gran Via, one of the city’s main avenues, where there were some baton charges as protesters ran, setting barricades in places.

Some projectiles were fired.

A Reuters photographer was taken to hospital after being hit in the stomach by a rubber or foam bullet, while Catalan emergency services said medics treated four people, none of whom were seriously injured.

Further down Via Laietana, a major tourist avenue in central Barcelona, a Reuters reporter saw dozens of young demonstrators with their faces covered throw plastic bottles at a line of anti-riot police officers.

New generation, new tactics: the changing face of Catalan protests Read more

Protesters chanting “Catalonia antifascist” gathered at both ends of the avenue, cordoned off by dozens of police vans and officers, some equipped with weapons carrying rubber and foam bullets.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A huge crowd waving Catalan flags gathered in central Barcelona on Saturday. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Earlier in the day, around 350,000 people had rallied in downtown Barcelona, turning the streets into a sea of independence flags in the latest mass protest against Spain’s jailing of nine separatist leaders.

Catalonia has been gripped by unrest since the 14 October supreme court verdict which unleashed a wave of protest that quickly turned violent, with masked demonstrators clashing nightly with riot police.

More than 600 people have been injured in the protests, 367 of them civilians and 289 police, official figures show.

The turnout of 350,000 for Saturday’s main rally was given by the local police as vast crowds packed into a wide avenue running between the waterfront and the city’s towering Sagrada Familia basilica, which was closed to visitors.

The rally was called by the ANC and Omnium Cultural, the region’s two biggest grassroots pro-independence groups, which have organised some of the largest separatist protests in recent years.

Spanish state repression in Catalonia may be shocking – but it’s nothing new | Arnaldo Otegi Read more

Marching down the spacious boulevard, demonstrators chanted “October 1, we won’t forgive, we won’t forget”, breaking into loud boos and whistling as a police helicopter flew overhead, an AFP correspondent said.

“I feel really angry,” said computer technician Marc, 26, who did not give his surname.

“The violence doesn’t sit well with me but it’s normal to have a bit of upheaval like we’ve seen in Chile and Ecuador,” he said of a wave of mass protests in Latin America.

“There are different ways of protesting but we have one objective: independence.”

But Catalans remain sharply divided over the question of separating from Spain, with polls showing 44 percent in favour and 48.3 percent against.