Mass street drinking sessions in Spain led to serious violence last night.
A least 80 were injured and 70 more arrested in Barcelona and Salamanca.
Tens of thousands of young people gathered in cities around Spain on Friday night in an attempt to hold the biggest street drinking session or "botellon" ("big bottle"). In the southern city of Granada, police said 25,000 people joined the botellon.
The most serious violence was in Barcelona, Spain's second city, where 68 people, including 37 police, were injured and 54 rioters arrested.
Barcelona police used baton charges and fired rubber bullets to try to control the youth, who had been throwing bottles and cans, according to media reports.
Firemen were called out to 50 blazes as the youths set fire to rubbish containers in the streets. Shop windows were broken and several shops ransacked, media reports said.
The Barcelona event degenerated into pitched battles between police and drinkers in the narrow old streets of the city center that lasted most of the night.
Police blamed the disturbances on about 200 people who, police said, were out to cause trouble.
Another 12 people were injured and 16 arrested, including an Italian and a German, in clashes in the historic university city of Salamanca, 180 kms northwest of Madrid, officials said.
The "botellon" has become part of city life in Spain in recent years as teenagers, too poor to go to bars, consume beer, spirits and cartons of wine in public.
Some cities, such as Seville, Granada and Valladolid, allowed the gatherings to take place in designated areas and up to 25,000 people gathered in the southern city of Granada.
"We've never seen anything like this in Granada," a police spokesman said. "There's no doubt that this is the biggest botellon in Spain…"