1.
GV Main square ZOOM INTO Police standing by
0.10

2.
GV Police get out of cars, cross road and enter shopping plaza (2 shots)
0.22

3.
LV Police run across road and disperse crowd (4 shots)
0.43

4.
LV Strikers run up road chased by police
0.53

5.
LV Police car arrives on scene and police chase strikers from shop firing tear gas (4 shots)
1.18

6.
TGV Police running up street into restaurant PAN Tear gas smoke surrounding crowd
1.26



Initials CL/2050 CL/2100



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Spanish riot police used tear gas and truncheon charges to disperse strikers gathered in Madrid's main square, the Plaza De Espana, on Monday (12 January).

Union leaders estimated that 100,000 people stopped work on Monday after a weekend of labour turmoil that fuelled widespread pay grievances and political unrest in factories and offices throughout the country.

Police used tear gas to break up a number of demonstrations including one outside a Madrid football stadium where King Juan Carlos had watched a match.

In the Plaza De Espana police moved in before the strikers could even form themselves into a demonstration.

Special squads of riot police were rushed to the scene and quickly broke the strikers' ranks.

Workers were chased from shops and alcoves throughout the central area, and the tear gas canisters were brought in to flush them from hiding places in a shopping alcove.

Police chased the strikers through the streets, pushing them away from the square and each other.

The workers eventually re-grouped, but baton-wielding police charged in to break them up again.

SYNOPSIS: The Plaza De Espana in Madrid was the scene of another clash between striking workers and riot police on Monday night.

Police moved in before the milling strikers could organism themselves, and a demonstration was broken up before it even began. Union leaders estimate that one hundred thousand people stopped work on Monday after a weekend of strikes, demonstrations and arrests that have fuelled industrial turmoil in Spain. Extra squads of riot police were brought to the Plaza and they quickly surrounded the main groups of workers.

Police chased the strikers through the streets and truncheon charged their ranks.

Eventually tear gas was used to flush the strikers from shops in a shopping alcove. As the workers ran out of the smoking buildings police chased through the streets trying to separate the larger groups from each other. Large numbers of the men did manage to re-group some distance from the Plaza, but another police baton charge into their ranks soon dispersed them.

The coming week will see what action the new Government of Juan Carlos will take in the face of labour turmoil.