Policeman hurt in Barcelona blast

A crowd gathered at the scene after the blast

A small blast at the Italian Cultural Institute in the Spanish city of Barcelona has lightly injured a policeman and killed a sniffer dog.

The blast happened as a bomb disposal team was examining a suspicious metal coffee pot which staff had spotted at the building's entrance on Tuesday.

The Italian foreign ministry described it as a home-made bomb.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast and Italy's consul in the city said no threats had been received.

The Associated Press reports that graffiti was daubed on a wall outside the cultural institute reading "freedom for Italian prisoners" along with a circle with the letter A - the symbol for anarchism.