Six arrested in Vitoria-Gasteiz over alleged attack on man wearing Spain football shirt

Sources close to the investigation told Europa Press that the six are suspected of a hate crime. The incident happened on 13 June, according to the organisation Aske, at a rally calling for official recognition of the Basque national team, two days before Spain's opening World Cup match against Cape Verde.

The young man was reportedly confronted and chased by a group of people before seeking refuge at a National Police station. Investigations carried out by officers this month have resulted in six arrests, with one man detained on Monday and the other five on Tuesday.

Aske, which is not affiliated with the mainstream Basque pro-independence left, said in a statement that the young man provoked the confrontation.

The organisation also said that one of those arrested had been released but remained accused of a hate crime and making threats. The other five were still in police custody when this edition closed.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has seen several other incidents involving people wearing Spain shirts during the World Cup. At the end of June, during festivities in the Aranbizkarra neighbourhood, three young men allegedly harassed and assaulted a local resident and demanded that he remove his shirt.

On the day of the World Cup final, a group also attacked two supporters with pepper spray as they made their way to Plaza Nueva in Vitoria to watch the match. Further incidents were reported on Calle Cuchillería and at Portal de Legutiano.

The arrests are not the only action taken by the National Police over alleged harassment and assaults involving Spain supporters. Last month, officers arrested two people allegedly linked to incidents in Bilbao on the day of the World Cup final on 19 July.

The arrests prompted a formal complaint from Bingen Zupiria, the Basque government's security minister, to interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

Zupiria argued that the arrests amounted to an encroachment on the jurisdiction of the Ertzaintza, the Basque regional police force.

He stressed that the Ertzaintza holds the status of 'Policía integral' (a force with full and comprehensive policing powers within its territory, rather than a limited or auxiliary one) in the Basque Country under the 1979 Statute of Gernika, agreements on the division of policing responsibilities reached in 1986 and subsequent legislation governing Spain's law enforcement agencies.