Spain summons UK ambassador over Gibraltar 'incident'

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) - Spain’s foreign ministry has summoned Britain’s ambassador to "energetically protest" an alleged incident between a Gibraltarian police boat and a Spanish vessel, according to a statement released Monday.

According to the Spanish government, last Friday a Royal Gibraltar Police patrol craft charged a Spanish police ship twice.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry secretary says it delivered U.K. ambassador Simon Manley a formal verbal complaint.

Neither Manley nor the U.K. government has yet to publicly comment.

The friction comes just after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Gibraltarians -- citizens of the tiny British territory located in the Iberian Peninsula -- voted 96 percent in favor of remaining in the EU.

Brexit has caused Spain’s government to increase rhetoric about sovereignty over Gibraltar.

“The Spanish flag on the Rock [Gibraltar] is much closer than it was before,” Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, told Spanish radio the day the Brexit results were known.