This is the shocking moment two groups of men including British tourists square up to each other in Wild West scenes on a beach in Barcelona.
Other sunbathers were filmed picking up their belongings and running for safety as the men traded punches before an overweight member of the rival group began to batter the British men with a metal pole.
One of the tourists caught up in the altercation — a man wearing red shorts — took a punch to the face from another in blue bathing trunks as he protested: “They’re mine, they’re mine, these are mine.”
A well-built friend in white shorts reacted to the attack on his mate by running over and punching the aggressor in the face as someone else shouted out in English: “You’d better f**k off.”
Frightened families had to distance themselves from the violent altercation as a man in black shorts picked up a metal pole and began to batter the British group.
The Brit in the red shorts continued to protest an unidentified valuable had been taken, before shouting out: “You give me my money back” and repeating his demand as he pointed his finger at the rival group with a more energetic: “You give me my f***ing money back.”
A pal tried to reach the overweight sunbather with the metal pole in his hand, moaning: “You hit me in the head like that” in a momentary truce before the punching and kicking started again.
African street sellers had to intervene before police arrived to restore order.
Sirens could be heard in the distance as the two groups of fighters were overpowered by officials on the sand.
TOURIST TENSIONS
The shocking incident happened on La Barceloneta beach, which for years has been at the centre of tension between holiday-makers and locals who say their working class area has been destroyed by mass Magaluf-style tourism.
A spokesman for the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police force, which sent officers to the scene, confirmed the incident had been dealt with by local police employed by Barcelona town hall.
No-one was immediately available for comment this morning from the town hall — to explain why the violence had flared up and whether the Brits had caught a member of the rival group trying to steal their belongings.
Two summers ago a couple were filmed having al fresco sex by the same beach.
The pair were identified as holiday-makers by enraged locals who used the footage to have a new moan at the drunken tourists they claimed were ruining their former fishing village.
The working-class neighbourhood near the Catalan capital’s coastline has been the scene of long-running protests against drunken Magaluf-style holiday-makers and illegal tourist flats.
The protests started in La Barceloneta but spread to other areas of the city including Poblenou.
Months of discontent erupted in 2014 with noisy street protests after a group of tourists were filmed coming out of a supermarket in La Barceloneta naked in broad daylight.
A neighbourhood association which published footage of the beach fight involving the British tourists said: “A normal day on La Barceloneta beach in Barcelona.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission
