On Sunday, the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force, confirmed that 128 people, including 72 minors, were arrested after a social media-organized gathering of young people in central Barcelona, Spain, turned violent on Saturday.
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The violence left 15 police officers injured, including 14 Mossos officers and one Barcelona municipal police officer. Four officers were seriously injured. Shops were damaged, street furniture was set on fire and participants clashed with police.
The gathering, which had not been notified to the authorities in advance, took place at Placa de Catalunya on Saturday evening.
Most of the several hundred young people attending the event were dressed in black. The event followed calls circulating on TikTok and other social media and resembled recent protests in other European cities, particularly in France, some of which also turned violent.
🇪🇦🔸In Barcelona, approximately 100 people were detained by police following protests that escalated into large-scale youth unrest, involving the smashing of shop windows, the construction of barricades, and the setting of fires to trash containers. pic.twitter.com/ZBKSnqAj56
— Argonaut (@FapeFop90614) October 25, 2026
On Sunday, Mossos chief commissioner Silvia Cata said that police had been monitoring the social media calls for several days but were still surprised by the participants’ “gratuitous violence,” particularly toward officers.
She described the participants as “completely disorganized,” saying they gathered at Placa de Catalunya and then split into groups of four to six, without putting forward any specific demands.
The Mossos said officers made “selective” use of foam projectile launchers during the unrest, citing the force of the attacks and the need to restore public order. The violent incidents continued until 10 p.m. on Saturday, when the remaining fires on streets were extinguished.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: Xinhua
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US authorities seized wealthy activist James “Fergie” Chambers’s cellphone at some point after Spanish police arrested him in July without notifying him or his attorneys, the Guardian has learned.
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© Photograph: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto via Getty Images
© Photograph: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto via Getty Images
© Photograph: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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