Police clash with Spanish protesters in Madrid

Violent clashes have broken out between police and demonstrators after thousands of Spaniards took to the streets of the capital Madrid to protest against a controversial construction project.

Some 11 people were reportedly arrested and as many injured as the Madrid demonstration turned violent on Wednesday.

Protesters rallied in Spain’s capital in solidarity with the residents of the country’s northern city of Burgos, who demand an end to the local government’s plans to convert a street into a tree-lined boulevard.

The project in Burgos’ Gamonal district is expected to cost the city at least €8 million ($11 million).

Critics argue that the street revamp plans is a waste of money at a time when Spaniards are suffering from financial crisis.

Nightly protests over the costly project, which began on January 10 in Burgos, have spread nation-wide in austerity-hit Spain.

Police have arrested about 40 people since the demonstrations began, as violent clashes were also seen in the northern city itself.

Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, leaving over 26 percent of the nation out of work.

Spain’s debt ratio has soared from 40.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 – the year when the European country’s economic crisis erupted – to 85.9 percent at the end of 2012.