5 police officers injured at illegal rave in western Catalonia 

Five police officers were injured in the early hours of Sunday morning as they attempted to prevent vehicles accessing an illegal rave in western Catalonia. 

Around 400 people attended the rave which began on Saturday night near the Santa Anna reservoir on the Catalonia-Aragon border and was still ongoing on Tuesday morning. 

Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police set up checkpoints to prevent more people from attending, and to check the condition of people leaving. 

Police managed to arrest the occupants of a van that rammed a police car at around 1am on Sunday, but one of the two arrested was able to escape after other partygoers confronted the officers. The man detained is a 29-year-old Italian. 

Police have opened an investigation to find out who is behind the organization of the illegal rave. 

According to the mayor of Ivars de Noguera, Josep Magí, around 3,000 people were invited from various parts of Catalonia and Spain, as well as from around Europe, mainly from Italy and France, but also from Poland and Bulgaria. 

The site is difficult to reach but some of those attending used alternative routes and crossed through agricultural estates to bypass the police.  

Llinars rave  

The policing of illegal raves was in the spotlight in January 2021 when the Mossos d'Esquadra took 36 hours to break up a New Year's party in an abandoned warehouse in Llinars.  

The then police chief claimed one of the reasons for the delay was a lack of officers – in the end, around 200 Mossos d'Esquadra were involved in the operation to bring a halt to the party which was attended by around 300 people.  

At the time, Covid restrictions meant that gatherings were limited to a maximum of 10 people. 

More recently, police had to deal with two illegal raves in rural Catalonia over Carnival weekend.