Spanish miners and sympathizers have clashed with riot police on one of Madrid's most famed avenues, and six demonstrators were hospitalized after police fired rubber bullets. The violence on Wednesday came after the miners marched for nearly three-weeks from the remote regions. In Madrid they were joined by other Spaniards incensed with the nation's seemingly endless austerity cutbacks. Some miners walked from northern and eastern mining regions into Madrid, where they received a hero's welcome by thousands lining La Castellana avenue outside the Industry Ministry building. The miners detonated deafening fireworks as they marched, then hurled them at the police riot vans guarding the ministry, which oversees the mining industry. Police fired rubber bullets at the ground as a warning, and opened fire on the protesters after they threw more fireworks and rocks and bottles at officers, witnesses said.
