Looters Leave Barcelona MediaMarkt Wrecked After Night of Riots

Smashed doors and a smoke-filled sales floor were all that was left of a MediaMarkt store on Barcelona’s Ronda de Sant Antoni after looters ransacked it during a night of rioting in the city centre on Saturday, October 24.

X user Guillem Carbonell filmed the wreckage through the shattered entrance, where security gates stand beside an empty doorway and a haze hangs over display stands still marked with promotional signs. “This is how the MediaMarkt on Ronda Sant Antoni has been left,” the filmer wrote, before panning up to the store’s glowing red sign.

The unrest began after a youth gathering at Plaça de Catalunya, called on social media under the slogan “Instituts Indignats”, turned violent. Hooded groups burned rubbish containers, threw objects at police and looted shops across the centre.

Barcelona City Council said 128 people were arrested, 72 of them minors, and that 23 shops were vandalised or looted. Fourteen regional police officers were injured.

Catalonia’s regional president Salvador Illa condemned the violence. “Protesting is a democratic right. Attacking, intimidating and causing damage is not,” he said.