One man dies after falling into a bonfire in west Catalonia during Sant Joan celebrations

One man in the western Catalan town of Gimenells i el Pla de la Font, near the city of Lleida, has died overnight after falling into a bonfire as part of the Sant Joan celebrations. 

The fire department received warning of the accident at around 10.15 pm and sent two crews to the area.

The flames were extinguished quickly so that the medical personnel could access the injured person but they could not do anything to save his life.

The Gimenells council is working to locate the family of the man, aged 30 and of sub-Saharan origin.

Mayor Dante Pérez regretted the incident and explained that the council wants to talk to the victim's relatives in Spain in order to manage the funeral.

Pérez also regretted that the municipality had experienced a "sad and impactful" night, as there were "many parents with their children who witnessed how a person threw himself into the flames."

Injuries and arrests

During the night, 477 people were treated for burns, injuries, amputations or eye damage caused by bonfires or firecrackers.

Between 8 pm and 8 am, the fire department received 934 calls, most of them for urban fires, and the 112 emergency services phone line answered 7,324 calls related to 4,383 incidents.

Catalan police arrested 91 people, 35 of them for theft, eleven for injuries, and fifteen for gender or domestic violence.

80,000 on Barcelona's beaches

In Barcelona, around 80,000 people gathered on the city's beaches to spend the night, where no major incidents occurred.

The city council's head of security, Albert Batlle, explained that some small incidents occurred, and likened them to a normal weekend. 

During the night, 269 alcohol tests were carried out and 32 were positive, a couple of which were criminal.

Two arrests for male violence and two cases of harassment have also been reported.

In a night of bonfires and firecrackers, there were also several fires reported, mostly of rubbish containers.

The beaches were cleared and cleaned without any problems in the morning and at 9.30 am they were already open to bathers.