Riot at Madrid station

Confusion and anger spilled over to cause a riot on the Madrid metro yesterday eveneing. A technical fault caused a train to stop at the Argüelles station, however when the driver asked the passengers to get off, they believed this to part of the industrial strike and refused to disembark.

In the end, the metro company had to call the police to have all travellers escorted off the train.

The regional president of Madrid,Esperanza Aguirre, has publicly critisized strikers, who have ceased work due to the imosed 5% wage-cut, saying they should count themselves lucky that as public sector workers they will never be made redundant – unlike almost 20% of the population of Spain who is unable to find work.

She has included metro workers in the wage-cut, as she considers it unfair to allow those with the capeabilities to hold the capital to ransom to be excempt.