5 pm (local time): The big demo has gathered on the Place Catalunya. The procession sets off at six, but owing to the size of the crowd, it takes nearly an hour and a half before the rear can move off. There are about 1,000 "hardcore" Black Block activists inside a much larger CNT-CGT anarchist block.

7:25 pm: A minor scuffle breaks out as the anarchist block moves off. There are riot cops on both sides of the streets defending a department store. However, the trouble only lasts a few seconds. Many of the Black Blockers are already wearing masks and brandishing weapons.

7:55 pm. I have moved immediately in front of the main anarchist block. There is a small riot breaking out to the rear - I can see the Black Block fighting with the crash-helmeted march stewards. Inexplicably, about one hundred riot cops sit in their vans and do nothing, even when their vehicles come under fire from bricks and bottles. If the cops had moved at this point, what followed could easily have been averted. Instead, the Black Block are allowed to move freely down the street, causing serious and sustained property damage to banks and a government building. One complete wanker chucks a bottle at a bank window at the exact time that I am passing. The glass literally smashes in my face, but somehow I am uninjured. I support the Black Block, but this is too much for me . . . there are many tourists and local people trapped in the crowd and we are coming under fire from a hail of projectiles. A journalist is assaulted by a Black Blocker.

8:25 pm: We have reached the seafront. There is a sheer drop in front of us, and riot cops deploying to the rear. Suddenly, there is a big crash, bang, wallop. A rubber bullet has just ricoched off the wall behind me. The Black Block respond with fireworks and bottles, but the baton rounds just keep on coming. I am caught out in the open and it is only by pure luck that I am not hit.

8:45 pm: We have reached the Columbus statue. The stewards are telling everyone to calm down, but the cops are still firing rubber bullets and are baton-charging us to the rear. I am caught in a big crowd surge and the cops come perilously close to hitting me with their big sticks. I am not as fit as I used to be, but with about 500 riot cops pegging it up the street after me, I ran like an Olympic champion!

9 pm: I manage to find refuge in a deserted pub. When I emerge half an hour later, all the demonstrators have gone - most of them in the direction of Paral´lel metro station. There are robocops with baton-guns everywhere, even on the backs of police motorbikes, riding pillion.

10 pm: There must be over 1,000 riot police on Las Ramblas. However, there are only a handful of demonstrators. The situation appears calm for now. I do not know where the Black Block is, or even if they have stayed together as a group. I am just glad to be alive. This is as bad as Genoa.