MADRID, July 21: Unemployed Spaniards on Saturday held the latest in a series of angry demonstrations against the government’s economic crisis cuts, as fears rose for the country’s financial stability.

Several hundred people thrown out of work by the recession converged on the capital after walking hundreds of miles from around Spain and gathered on the grass opposite Madrid's Prado museum waving signs and shouting slogans.

“It’s a long walk, but we couldn’t just stay at home,” said Rafael Ledo, 31, tanned and with a walking stick in each hand after hiking some 500 kilometres from the northern region of Asturias.

“We have to get moving and try to mobilise all the unemployed people in Spain. There are nearly six million of us now,” added Ledo, who has not found work for two years.

The protestors planned to march together at 1630 GMT to the central Puerta del Sol square, the symbolic hub of social protests since last year.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators massed there on Thursday night in a mostly peaceful mass protest that ended with police firing rubber bullets to disperse small groups.

Saturday’s protests came as Spain’s economic and financial outlook darkened. The government warned on Friday the recession will drag on through 2013, and the interest rates on Spanish sovereign bonds rose to danger levels.

An almost-daily string of protests erupted after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on July 11 announced 65 billion euros ($80 billion) in fresh austerity measures including cuts to pay and unemployment benefits.—AFP