Rubber bullet victim: 'no reason' for police to fire during referendum

A man who lost the sight in one eye due to a police rubber bullet during the 2017 independence referendum has told a Barcelona court that there was "no reason" for Spanish officers to fire on the protesters.

Roger Español, who testified on Friday as defendant and suspect, admitted to the court that he had moved barriers but that "at no time" was it to hurt anyone and that his intention had been to "block the way" of the police vans.

"I had the idea that every minute they [the police] were held up was a minute less they would have to do the same in another school," Español told the press outside court, where some hundred people gathered to support him.