BARCELONA police have arrested 128 people after a protest by young people in Plaça de Catalunya turned into a night of looting, fires and clashes with riot police.
The Mossos d’Esquadra arrested 128 people, dozens of them minors, according to the force’s chief commissioner, Silvia Cata, speaking on Catalunya Radio.
It is the second time in three weeks that violence has erupted around Plaça de Catalunya.
Grups violents de persones amb la cara tapada cremen contenidors, vandalitzen mobiliari urbà i llencen pedres contra la policia a les immediacions de la Plaça Catalunya de Barcelona i voltants. Recomanem que no us hi acosteu per la vostra seguretat https://t.co/mYaAYFzdPD
— Mossos (@mossos) October 24, 2026
The young people, most of them hooded and dressed in black, gathered in the square after a protest was called on social media under the slogan ‘Instituts Indignats’. It is the Catalan version of ‘Lycées Indignés’, the movement behind weeks of student protests in France.
They threw stones, set fire to bins and street furniture, and broke into shops in the area.
Fourteen shops were vandalised and looted, including electronics, clothing, shoe and optician’s stores, and at least 20 fires were started across the city centre.
Fourteen Mossos officers were injured, four of them seriously.
The violence broke out on a busy Saturday afternoon, with the city centre full of residents and tourists.
Rioters set fire to the terrace of the landmark Café Zurich, at the top of Las Ramblas, and built a burning barricade from bins and motorbikes where Carrer Bergara meets the square. They also smashed bus shelters and wrecked a set of traffic lights.
Videos on social media showed people trapped inside shops, including El Corte Ingles, after the shutters came down.
Police told tourists to leave the square as a helicopter circled overhead.
More than 220 officers from the Mossos and Barcelona’s Guardia Urbana were deployed. Riot police charged the crowd, which split into smaller groups and scattered into the surrounding streets, with officers in pursuit.
The area from Plaça Urquinaona to Universitat was sealed off, and the Renfe and FGC stations at Plaça de Catalunya were closed, with trains running through without stopping.
By 9.45pm the Mossos had cleared the square and the fires were out.
Plaça de Catalunya has been home to a housing protest camp for the past three weeks. The rioters tried to get into the camp, but its organisers and participants stopped them.
La protesta "contra el sistema" al centre de Barcelona s’estén a la Ronda Universitat. Imatges de l’atac a una botiga de tecnologia https://t.co/NQZAd0sIAF https://t.co/swSm6Cxuif
— 3CatInfo (@3CatInfo) October 24, 2026
Earlier this month, on October 5, a housing protest in the same square turned violent, with rioters building barricades and throwing objects at police vans.
Catalan Interior Minister Nuria Parlon said Saturday’s violence had been caused by “unorganised” groups that were not defending “any right”.
The Catalan Interior Department believes the protest may have been a “mirror” of those held the same day in several cities in France and Italy.
Catalan president Salvador Illa condemned the riots and backed the Mossos.
“Violence has no place in Catalonia. Never,” he said. “Protesting is a democratic right. Attacking, intimidating and causing damage is not.” He promised that “whoever does it, pays for it”.
Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni vowed that those responsible would be punished.
“We will not allow what happened to go unpunished,” he said. “This will have consequences, for adults and for those responsible for the minors. We will not allow the city to be vandalised.”
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