Basque Country riots: eleven Ertzaintza officers injured

Eleven Ertzaintza officers injured in a night of riots in three Basque towns

What does it take for a night in the Basque Country to turn into a battlefield? The answer, according to the known facts, is a knife attack and three almost simultaneous flashpoints. The Security Department of the Basque Government has confirmed that eleven officers were injured in Eibar, Arrasate and Vitoria-Gasteiz. Ten of them in Gipuzkoa, one in the capital of Álava. The injuries, all minor, required nothing more than medical assistance, but the toll does not hide the seriousness of what peine.

A mass brawl in Eibar after a knife attack

The most serious episode broke out in Eibar at around two in the morning. The local police had to call for urgent support from the Ertzaintza (the Basque regional police) after a knife attack escalated into a mass fight. The officers themselves were the target of the assaults, according to the official account, which does not hesitate to describe the events as "serious disturbances".

Nine arrests and an uncomfortable profile

The investigation has led to the identification of nine people involved: five women and four men, aged between 30 and 46. According to published reports, those arrested include people of Latin American and Maghrebi origin, as well as a Spanish citizen. The news reopens an uncomfortable debate about nightlife coexistence in Euskadi, where knife incidents keep piling up without the authorities managing to stop them.

For now, the official version speaks of eleven injured and nine arrested. The irony is that, while some debate the origins of those involved, others still cannot explain how, at two in the morning, a handful of people with knives managed to turn a street in Eibar into a trench.