The Spanish government on Friday welcomed Scotland's "No" vote on independence, but Catalans set on breaking away from Spain pushed ahead defiantly for their own ballot on self-rule.

Nationalists in the northeastern Catalonia region keenly watched the result from Scotland, knowing a "Yes" result there would fire up their own campaign to hold a vote -- a move fiercely opposed by Spain's central government.

Spain's leaders refuse to let their country break apart, but as Catalonia's independence drive gathers steam, analysts say Madrid may have to negotiate on a question affecting all of Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of nationalists demanding a vote on independence from Spain staged a mass demonstration in Barcelona on Thursday, gathering in red and yellow shirts to form a giant "V" for vote.

The strengthening of Scotland's independence movement is fanning fierce passions in Spain's Catalonia region, where noisy demonstrations are planned on Thursday by Catalans who want to break away from Spain.

Red and yellow Spanish flags fly proudly in the town of Badalona as thousands flock to watch the national basketball team play.

Separatist urges may have surged here in the northeastern Catalonia region, where leaders are vowing a vote on independence, but this is one corner that clings to Spain.

A European arrest warrant was issued Saturday for the parents of a five-year-old British boy with a brain tumor who was snatched from hospital without medical consent.

The police said they had "positive information" to suggest that Ashya King and his family could be in Spain, where they have "strong links" to the Marbella area on the south coast.

Spanish police said Friday they have seized 2.8 tonnes of hashish after a passerby spotted suspected traffickers onloading bundles from a rubber speedboat on a beach near the glitzy resort of Marbella.

Officers rushed to the Alicate beach on the Costa del Sol, which is often thronged with sunseekers, on the morning of July 8 after receiving a call from a man who said he saw a group of men unloading packages from a speedboat, police said in a statement.

Police found two Moroccan children aged eight and nine clinging to the undercarriage of a camper van as they tried to stowaway to Spain, authorities said on Thursday.

Border officers found the two after the van disembarked from a ship at the southern Spanish port of Tarifa, which faces the coast of Morocco, police said in a statement.

Thousands of half-naked revelers will pelt each other with squishy tomatoes on Wednesday in Spain's Tomatina, a world-renowned fiesta stained this year by a row over its privatization.

Popular with visitors from Britain, Australia, the United States and Japan, the Tomatina brings the small eastern town of Bunol to world attention once a year for an orgy of goo dubbed "the world's biggest food fight".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday backed Madrid's opposition to attempts by Spain's economically powerful Catalonia region to hold an independence referendum in November.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pledged to go to the Constitutional Court to block any Catalan attempt to hold the poll, arguing that sovereignty is a matter for all of Spain to decide.

A police helicopter flying to rescue a mountain climber with a broken ankle crashed in Spain on Sunday, killing all three crew members on board, emergency services said.

The helicopter's blades struck the side of a mountain close to the Picos de Europa range in the northwestern province of Leon. The aircraft then slid down the rock face, regional emergency services said in a statement.