Spain: Housing crisis prompts general strike, mass nighttime protests

Authorities in Spain say that despite pouring rain, some 120,000 citizens took to the streets of the capital, Madrid, on Wednesday evening after millions of striking workers brought Europe's fourth-largest economy to a standstill under the motto "Salaries. Housing. Prices" in the country's first general strike in 14 years earlier in the day.

The massive turnout came in response to housing shortages and unbearably high rents.

City officials in Barcelona said 55,000 people attended evening marches there as they walked behind a huge banner reading "Live. Not just survive." Housing activists in the city said the turnout was far larger, claiming that 400,000 had hit the streets. 

As has been the case in other demonstrations across the Europea of late, peaceful protests later gave way to small groups of marauding young men who smashed storefront windows along Barcelona's main shopping street. They also set fire to dumpsters and shot fireworks at police when they arrived.