Riot police fire rubber bullets at protesting Madrid firemen

Security and emergency forces were pitted against each other in Madrid on Monday when around 200 firemen disrupted the opening ceremony of a new fire station in Valdemoro.

Firing rubber bullets and shooting rounds into the air, riot police moved in to evict firemen who were staging a sit-in at the local town council offices to demand an increase in staffing and equipment. The disturbance left windows smashed, two local policeman injured and the arrest of five firemen.

Trade union representative Antonio Rocamora said that the 3.4-million-eurofire station at Valdemoro was a "political inauguration" and that fire engines and staff would have to be borrowed from other thinly stretched teams.

He also complained that no new firemen had been recruited for seven years. "They ration our toilet paper but they build a fire station in Valdemoro when they're more needed elsewhere," he said.

Madrid interior chief Francisco Granados called the protest "brutal" and said criminal charges would be brought against the firemen.