A youth protest “against the system” in central Barcelona turned into mass unrest on Saturday evening. People wearing masks and black clothing smashed shop windows, looted stores and set fire to rubbish containers around Plaça de Catalunya.
The protest was organised online under the slogan “Instituts Indignats” (“Outraged schools”), following the example of the French high-school movement “Lycées Indignés”. The authorities had not been notified about it. Participants protested rising housing prices and worsening living conditions.
Barricades and fires
At the intersection of Bergara Street and Plaça de Catalunya, protesters built a barricade from containers, rubbish bins and motorcycles and set it on fire. Bus-stop windows were smashed, a traffic light was damaged, and police officers were pelted with stones, flares and firecrackers.
The groups then dispersed through nearby streets, including La Rambla, Portal de l’Àngel and Ronda de la Universitat.
Looted shops
Footage shows young people breaking into an electronics store and taking goods while customers and employees flee in panic.
Many businesses in the city centre closed early. Catalan outlet Nació reported that the El Corte Inglés department store on Plaça de Catalunya lowered its shutters while customers were still inside.
A jewellery store was also damaged, and the moment of the vandalism was captured in a live broadcast from the scene.
The aftermath included smashed windows and overturned and burned motorcycles. Firefighters had to extinguish fires in the streets.
Police response
More than 10 units from the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and the city police, the Guàrdia Urbana, were deployed to the area. Special units dispersed the crowd, streets between Plaça de la Universitat and Plaça d’Urquinaona were closed, and access to the central metro station was restricted.
One video shows police arresting a looter who tried to snatch a phone from a passerby.
Public rental bicycles were also damaged.
Catalonia’s interior minister said more than 30 fires had been recorded during the unrest and that 14 shops had been damaged or looted. Reuters reported that around 100 people were arrested, about a quarter of them minors.
Authorities respond
Catalan President Salvador Illa condemned the violence and thanked the police: “Protesting is a democratic right. Attacking, intimidating or causing damage is not.”
Activists from the housing-rights camp that has stood on Plaça de Catalunya for several weeks said they were not involved in the unrest. Similar youth protests against the rising cost of living have recently taken place in France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal.
