Spanish police removed the remaining protesters and tents from Madrid's Puerta del Sol square early on Tuesday, the office of the central government's representative in Madrid said. The operation ended a five-week encampment, with riot police clearing the camp of its remaining 334 occupants at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) and making two arrests, the office said.
The clearing ends a five-week occupation of Madrid's Puerta del Sol that had become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis. The campers' representatives said they would focus on a general strike over housing rights and cost of living called for November 11.
Spanish police removed the remaining protesters and tents from Madrid's Puerta del Sol square early on Tuesday, the office of the central government's representative in Madrid said in a statement. The pre-dawn operation ended a five-week encampment that had become a symbol of Spain's housing crisis.
Riot police moved in to clear the camp of its remaining 334 occupants at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) and made two arrests for disobedience and resisting officers, the office said. The operation involved some 400 police, along with firefighters and social services.
Protesters said on their Telegram messaging channel that the clearing had been violent and that several campers were injured after being beaten and attacked with pepper spray. The government said in a separate statement that there had been no violence or disturbances.
Reuters footage showed city workers cleaning the square with water hoses, scrubbing graffiti from statues and disposing of large plastic tarps strung between lamp posts.
On October 30, the campers' main representatives said they were dissolving their organizing committees as their original demand had been met after the government passed several housing measures. They said they planned to focus on a general strike over housing rights and cost of living called for November 11.
According to the government, a large number of the people still sleeping there were homeless or belonged to other vulnerable groups. The protests were sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, who later died, with marches called by tenants' unions held across Spain. Similar camps sprang up in squares in other major Spanish cities, as well as in neighboring Portugal.
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