Fury as Spain sends in riot police to evict disabled 87-year-old woman from her Madrid home of 71 years after investment firm hiked rent by 275%

Violent protests have broken out in Spain after a disabled 87-year-old woman was forcibly evicted from the Madrid apartment she had called home for 71 years.

Maricarmen Abascal was carried from the building on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance as riot cops clashed with demonstrators chanting: 'Maricarmen, you are not alone.'

The pensioner had spent years in a legal battle against a real estate firm that had acquired her apartment and raised the monthly rent by 275 per cent to €2,650 (£2,279), according to the Madrid renters' union. 

Supporters say she had always paid her rent but was given just 30 minutes to collect her belongings.

Tensions erupted at the entrance to the building on Wednesday as riot police removed protesters blocking the doorway. 

Footage shows Maricarmen looking around as health workers wheel her towards the ambulance.

The legal battle reached the Supreme Court which ruled in favour of the firm, clearing the way for the eviction, the union said.

Police officers charged and dragged away dozens of activists who had camped outside Maricarmen's building to try to stop the eviction, to cries of 'shame!' from protesters.

Health workers used a stretcher to escort the pensioner, who uses a wheelchair, into an ambulance as the protesters chanted 'Maricarmen, you aren't alone!' behind a security cordon.

Maricarmen Abascal was carried from the building on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance as demonstrators chanted: 'Maricarmen, you are not alone'

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Madrid as an 87-year-old woman was evicted from the apartment she had called home for 70 years

Police remove a member of the Madrid Tenants' Union from forming a barricade in front of the access to the building 

After leaving the building, she was taken to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital. She refused the free emergency placement offered by the city and, at least temporarily, is supposed to be staying with a relative. 

Amnesty International Spain slammed 'a violation of human rights' and 'a system that puts the speculative interests of a vulture fund before Maricarmen's right to stay in her house'.

'It isn't an isolated case, it is just another portrayal of the suffering that thousands of households go through in Spain,' Amnesty said in a statement.

In an interview with public broadcaster RTVE recorded on Tuesday, Maricarmen called the company 'inhuman, and all in order to make money'.

'You cannot make a person live for seven years with a machete hanging over their neck,' she said, blaming the national, regional and city authorities for her plight.

Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez insisted the minority Leftist government had repeatedly tried to pass a law to ban such evictions and accused the conservative-run Madrid region of 'rolling out the red carpet for these speculators'.

Housing has for years been a top concern for Spaniards as supply falls short of demand, with rents and purchasing prices soaring relentlessly as elsewhere in the European Union.

Residents in the world's second-most visited country blame short-term tourist rentals such as Airbnb for driving up prices and cutting supply, sparking protests in hotspots including Barcelona.

'I'm leaving Madrid, because Madrid isn't Madrid. And the people of Madrid are no longer Madrilenos. They are all the tourists that you have in Gran Via,' Maricarmen told RTVE, referring to the Spanish capital's main commercial thoroughfare.

Earlier this year, it emerged that more than 100,000 half-finished homes currently lie empty in Spain, after locals spent years complaining that they had nowhere to live. 

Data from Spain's Ministry of Housing indicates that this vast array of unfinished homes is only a portion of those in the country. 

The government's report into the issue only tracked developments that were meant to host at least 1,000 homes and had building levels of less than 70 per cent. 

On top of this, there is enough developed land with streetlights and roads – but no homes – in Spain for 390,000 homes. 

Many of these developments exist in an eerie state of limbo as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, with many housebuilders defaulting on loans and declaring bankruptcy, unable to pay their loans back. 

And since then, the country's property development market has come to something of a standstill. The Bank of Spain estimates that there is currently a shortage of almost 700,000 homes. 

Because of this, demand for homes has surged, and Spanish residents have increasingly felt priced out of their communities. In the last few years, they have taken out much of their anger on tourists and non-residents who buy up homes in holiday hotspots.  

Riots and protests have blighted many of Spain's biggest tourist cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Mallorca's Palma. 

And in many parts of the country, legislation about banning Britons from buying property is being debated.