BARCELONA, Spain -- Violent clashes broke out for a second consecutive night in Barcelona between police and protesters angry about the conviction of a dozen Catalan separatist leaders, as Spain launched an investigation Tuesday into an activist group organizing the protests.
Thousands of people held vigils near the Spanish government offices in Catalonia's four provinces, but it was in the northeastern regional capital, Barcelona, where police charged at protesters after some hurled firecrackers and other objects at the officers and kicked fences put in place to protect the building.
The evening vigils, also held in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, as well as smaller towns across Catalonia, had been called by ANC and Omnium, two grassroots pro-secession groups whose leaders Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart were sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for sedition.
Seven politicians were also given prison terms of about a decade in Monday's landmark Supreme Court ruling, and three more were fined for disobeying the laws as they pushed ahead with a banned referendum on Oct. 1, 2017, and briefly declared independence based on its results before Spain crushed the defiance.
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Activists also blocked highways, roads and railway tracks for brief periods on Tuesday, after an attempt to besiege Barcelona's international airport the night before.
Authorities said that three people were arrested and more than 170 others injured in Monday's protests, including about 40 police officers and a protester who lost an eye. The airport authority said that 110 flights were canceled Monday and 45 on Tuesday. Nearly 1,000 were operating normally, the authority said.
Most impromptu protests are responding to an online campaign by Tsunami Democratic, a loose, leaderless grassroots group calling for peaceful disobedience.
Spain's caretaker interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said authorities were investigating the group.
The court also barred the 12 convicted Catalan separatists from holding public office. That has an immediate effect in the upcoming Nov. 10 Spanish election because six of them were planning to run as candidates to the national parliament.
Information for this article was contributed by Ciaran Giles of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/16/2019