A POLICEMAN in Barcelona has been assaulted by drunk tourists who thought he was a robber.

The mix-up left the officer, who was in plain clothes, battered and bruised.

The confusion happened when the plain clothed on duty policeman spotted a watchmaker being violently robbed. 

The cop stepped in and intercepted one of the robbers.

Two tourists walking past, however, misread the situation and thought the officer himself was the robber.

The drunken tourists then proceeded to assault the policeman, throwing him to the ground and kicking him. 

Despite the victim trying to identify himself, shouting ‘policeman!’, the perpetrators ignored him. 

The attack took place on Tuesday afternoon in the Placa del Mar neighbourhood of Barcelona.

A Barcelona City Council spokesperson confirmed that the attackers were arrested shortly after the incident for the alleged crime of assault. 

Speaking to Cronica Global newspaper, a representative of the CSIF, a Spanish trade union for public service workers, slammed a shortage of police creating a “precarious situation” which in this case could have resulted in the colleague having “lost his life” . Barcelona should have 4500 officers but in reality only has around 3188, according to the CSIF. 

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