Madrid migrants clash with police after death of street vendor

Migrants have clashed with police in central Madrid following the death of a Senegalese man who they said was chased through the streets by police.

Riot police and firefighters were deployed to Lavapiés, a district in the centre of the Spanish capital with a large immigrant population, as angry protesters set fire to dustbins and a motorbike and threw stones.

Demonstrators said they were protesting in support of Mmame Mbage, a street vendor in his mid-thirties from Senegal, who arrived in Spain by boat 12 years ago.

Mbage was found unconscious on a street in Lavapiés by police on patrol. They were trying to revive him when emergency workers arrived, but he died of cardiac arrest, according to an emergency services spokeswoman.

She did not know what had happened to Mbage before he collapsed, but several other street vendors who were with him said he had been chased by police from Puerta del Sol.

“Municipal police arrived and chased him from Sol to Lavapiés with a motorbike,” said Modou, a 25-year-old vendor from Senegal who refused to give his surname. Others confirmed the account.

Mbage was one of thousands of migrants who have reached Spain in search of a better life. He worked as an illegal vendor and sent money back to his family.

Spain is the third busiest gateway for migrants coming to Europe, with close to 23,000 arrivals in 2017. Hundreds have died along the way.

(GUARDIAN)