Security scare before pope’s visit to Spain

BARCELONA - A Barcelona resident found on the street police documents related to the security of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain this weekend, the radio station Rac-1 reported Friday.

The resident found 11 pages of documents scattered on the street, as he was taking his dog for a walk late Tuesday.

Benedict XVI is scheduled to arrive Saturday in Santiago de Compostela before heading for Barcelona, where he will consecrate the Sagrada Familia basilica Sunday.

The file contained information such as telephone numbers of top security officials, details on security cameras and the numbers of police, as well as names of hotels where people accompanying the pontiff will be staying.

Some of the documents had the seal of the Interior Ministry.

A delegate of the central government to the Catalonia region, which has Barcelona as its capital, said a member of the security forces had lost the file a month ago, and informed his bosses about it.

“Corrections” had then been made to security arrangements to make sure that the loss of the documents would not jeopardise them, Joan Rangel said.

The incident did not represent “any risk or danger”, he insisted.

Rangel declined to say whether the officer who lost the documents had been penalised.