Riots in Barcelona: around one hundred arrested following looting and bin fires
Hooded gangs of young people clashed with the Mossos in Plaça de Catalunya, causing fires, vandalism and looting of shops. Around 25% of more than one hundred arrests were minors.
Violence in Barcelona city centre following anti-system youth protest
More than one hundred young people were arrested on Saturday in Barcelona following disturbances that spread across the city's shopping district, according to reporting by El Mundo. Approximately 25% of those arrested were minors.
The gathering began at Plaça de Catalunya, where around 500 hooded young people dressed in black assembled, many of them teenagers. The protest had been called without official notice via social media and followed similar movements in France and other European cities, under the banner of "instituts en lluita" (translation of the French Lycées Indignés), although with no specific official organiser.
The incidents escalated rapidly. Bands of demonstrators with covered faces burned bins in at least 33 separate fires, damaged street furniture—railings, bins, parasols and café chairs—pulled up traffic lights and erected barricades. They damaged motorcycles and bicycles, smashed shop windows and vandalised bus shelters. Police recorded around ten officers injured during the clashes.
The Mossos d'Esquadra and Guardia Urbana charged at dispersed groups who replicated the disturbances at key locations such as the Ramblas and Plaça Universitat, all major commercial thoroughfares packed with people on a Saturday afternoon. Police cordoned off several streets and alerted the public via social media: "Violent groups of people with covered faces are burning bins, vandalising street furniture and throwing stones at police."
The looting affected at least 14 clothing and electronics shops. Many shops and large stores closed their doors urgently, trapping hundreds of customers inside. Some had to leave through back or emergency exits.
Mayor Jaume Collboni and Interior Affairs Councillor Núria Parlón appeared several hours later. Collboni stressed that "it has not been an ordinary gathering defending a cause or a right, it has been the result of those calls that are currently spreading across Europe, particularly France, and that have impacted on our city." The City Council will join proceedings as a claimant, said Collboni, warning that "it will have consequences for those of legal age and it will have consequences for the parents of minors."
The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, condemned the events "unequivocally." "There is no cause that justifies violence," he stated. "Whoever protests exercises a right. Whoever assaults or destroys, violates it." Illa pledged to ensure that "whoever has done this will pay for it" and expressed that "violence has no place in Catalonia" in a social media post.
The president of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, claimed that the disturbances demonstrate that Spain needs "a change" and appealed to "coexistence," which in his view requires "responsibility and not encouraging those who put it at risk." The Govern did not rule out further arrests in the hours to follow.
Source: El Mundo