Leftwing parties in Spain are demanding explanations after a video appeared to show a pair of police officers using violent force on two unarmed black men in a central Madrid neighbourhood.

The video, shot on Friday in Lavapiés, appears to show one of the men on the ground and immobilised by a police officer who seemingly has him in a chokehold. A second police officer appears to then strike the immobilised man twice with a baton before grabbing and punching another man standing nearby.

As video of the encounter swiftly spread across social media, a police source told the Europa Press news agency that the two men had been arrested for undermining authority. The source described the men as being “hostile” towards the officers and said one of the officers had been injured. One of those arrested was later found to have drugs on him, the source claimed.

The video provoked outrage across Spain. The antiracist campaign group SOS Racismo described the images as “another example of how state security forces act in Lavapiés”. In its social media post it added: “Those of us who live in this neighbourhood know that these actions are commonplace, and nobody does anything about it.”

Leftwing politicians called on the interior ministry to take action. “This police violence is unacceptable,” Isabel Serra, a spokesperson for the Podemos party, wrote on social media. “And unfortunately – or because of the complicity of the institutions – it is all too common. It is racism.”

Íñigo Errejón, a spokesperson for the Sumar leftwing alliance, said he had demanded a written explanation. “Do not normalise this, do not look the other way, ask for explanations,” he wrote on X.

In questions submitted to parliament, Errejón noted that the video appeared to show “an aggression” by two police officers, carried out on one man he described as immobilised and another who was not resisting. He added: “Cruelty can be perceived, which does not seem to respond to a restrained protocol of police action.”