A Greenpeace vessel was reported to have been rammed by one from the Spanish navy, leaving one activist injured.
The event came during a protest against oil drilling by Repsol in the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
The Spanish navy was protecting as oil drilling ship. One of its speedy inflatable boats appeared to deliberately collide with the Greenpeace inflatable, according to the footage filmed.
The Greenpeace boat had been making its way toward the oil ship Rowan Renaissance.
Matilda Brunetti, an Italian aged 23, can be heard screaming in pain in the video as her leg was broken and she was thrown into the water. She was rescued by the navy and taken to a hospital in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria where she is recovering.
The protest follows the Spanish government’s green light given in August for deepwater drilling and fracking, despite massive local opposition.
Drilling was due to start on 18 November, according to Repsol, depending on weather conditions.
Repsol said it assumed it would find a reservoir with 100,000 barrels of oil every day.
“This would reduce Spain’s energy dependency from 99.9% to about 90%, saving the country about €4bn a year [in imports],” a spokesman said. “Spain consumes just over 1m barrels of oil a day. Our firm belief is this in the best interests of Spain.”
Of the incident, the Spanish ministry of defence said that Greenpeace had ignored repeated requests to quit the exclusion zone, which spreads for one maritime mile from the site.
It said the navy was in place to prevent activists from boarding the Rowan Renaissance.
For video see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IupejIFKWmA
