More than 300,000 join final big march against EU summit

Up to 300,000 people joined a final protest march against the EU economic summit in Barcelona, according to first estimates by organizers.

Marching behind a banner that declared: "Against a Europe of capital -- another world is possible," the overwhelmingly young demonstrators headed from Placa de Catalunya to the harborfront.

A heavy contingent of riot police deployed in the streets as helicopters hovered overhead amid fears of a repeat of the street violence that has marred top-level EU gatherings in the past.

Youthful, whistle-blowing demonstrators for a host of causes -- including communists, Greens, Catalan and Basque nationalists, and opponents of free-market globalization -- moved forth under a forest of banners in hand.

Organizers estimated the marchers at 300,000 to 500,000 while police said at least 140,000 had massed in the streets.

Shops along the two-kilometer (mile-long) route drew their shutters, though some department stores remained open, their doors guarded by police in heavy flak jackets. Overhead, two police helicopters hovered noisily.

Organizers, cheered by a week full of largely trouble-free protest actions, had been hoping for at least 100,000 participants -- even with a big soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid elsewhere in the city.