Counting the cost of three nights of unrest in Catalonia

After three nights of disturbances in Barcelona and other Catalan cities over the jailing of nine independence leaders to up to 13 years in prison, the authorities have begun to assess the fallout by releasing figures on the numbers injured and arrested.

Catalonia's ambulance service, SEM, said on Thursday that it had attended to a total of 346 injured people since Monday, including both protesters and police officers. Of those, 131 received medical attention on Monday, 119 on Tuesday, and 96 on Wednesday.

More than a hundred of the people who required an ambulance on Monday - the day the Supreme Court sentenced the Catalan leaders to prison - were at the protest that brought Barcelona airport to a standstill.

While protesters and police officers have been injured in the unrest in places around Catalonia, the majority have been in Barcelona. For example, 57 needed treatment on Wednesday in the Catalan capital, after 37 people were seen to the night before.

In other Catalan cities and towns, the numbers of injuries were on a smaller scale. For example, on Wednesday, some nine people needed medical attention in Girona, 14 in Manresa, 12 in Lleida and two in Tarragona.

A number of journalists have also been injured covering the unrest. On Thursday, the Mèdia.cat watchdog said that 21 reporters have been injured around Catalonia since the protests began on Monday. Nine were injured in Barcelona alone on Wednesday.

Over a hundred people arrested

Meanwhile, Spain's interior ministry on Thursday put the number of people arrested during the disturbances at 101. On Wednesday alone some 52 people were detained, 38 by the Mossos d'Esquadra Catalan police and 14 by the Spanish National police.

As with the injuries caused in the unrest, most of the arrests - over a dozen on Wednesday - took place in Barcelona, although there were a number of detentions in single figures in other places, such as Lleida, Tarragona, Girona, Manresa and Vilanova i la Geltrú.

The ministry also gave information about the number of police officers injured in the protests, putting the number since Monday at 194. According to the figures on Wednesday alone, some 35 Mossos officers were injured and 11 Spanish National police officers.

City councils assess the damage

The unrest has also led to plenty of damage in the places where the protests have taken place, especially in terms of communal rubbish containers that protesters have set on fire to act as barricades in the streets.

On Thursday, for example, the Barcelona city council said that some 400 plastic containers had been burnt in the city on Wednesday night, at an estimated cost of half a million euros. Meanwhile, the fire service said it had put out 160 burning barricades and vehicles.

Elsewhere, the Tarragona authorities estimated that the damage caused to rubbish containers in the city amounted to some 150,000 euros, while the Lleida city council put the cost to their city at 80,000 euros.