Oil price protests

Roads blockaded in Spain, Portugal - demos in Asia

Article published on the 2008-06-10 Latest update 2008-06-10 10:21 TU

Tailbacks outside Madrid
(Photo: Reuters)

In Spain police escorted 20 oil-tankers into Barcelona as a strike by thousands of lorry drivers caused petrol shortages. Tailbacks have formed outside major Spanish cities as truckers blockade roads. And copy-cat demonstrations took place in Hong Kong, while students clashed with police in Nepal.

Tens of thousands of lorry drivers in Spain, Portugal and France have joined the protests, leading to warnings of fuel and food shortages soon.

Forty per cent of petrol stations in the northern province of Catalonia have run out of fuel, according to Manuel Amado, the president of the Catalonia Federation of Service Stations.

In France service areas on motorways are packed with lorries from the border, where French and Spanish drivers are staging pickets, to Bordeaux 200 kilometers away.

Major tailbacks are reported around the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia and the drivers threaten to disrupt the opening ot the International Exposition in Zaragosa this weekend.

Portugal's government believes it can end a similar protest movement by the end of the week.

French fisherman ended a three-week strike on Monday ahead of a European fisheries ministers' meeting but their Spanish colleagues maintained their stoppage.

French rail services have been badly hit by a strike against the reorganisation of freight services on Tuesday.

In Hong Kong hundreds of truck, minibus and rubbish collection vehicles staged a slow-drive protests which their leaders say was inspired by the European protests.

And in Nepal students clashed with police after the state-owned fuel company announced price rises of 27 per cent for kerosene, 25 per cent for petrol and diesel and nine per cent for cooking gas.