Riots in Barcelona: what to do if you live or run a business in Spain

At around 6pm on Saturday 24 October, the El Corte Inglés department store on Plaça de Catalunya brought down its shutters with shoppers still inside. That evening the housing protest camp on the same square was sheltering families with children. The camp later said it had nothing to do with the looting. Meanwhile, until 10pm, teenagers called out on TikTok were wrecking shops in the streets around it.

We checked the figures below on 27 October 2026 against data from the Catalan government, Barcelona City Council, the state insurance compensation fund (Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros) and the Spanish press. The investigation is still going on, and some figures may change.

What happened in Barcelona on 24 October

Hundreds of teenagers and young people gathered near Plaça de Catalunya in the late afternoon. The TikTok posters promised a protest for good schools. At around 6pm the attacks on police and shops began, and they went on until about 10pm, from the lower end of Passeig de Gràcia to La Rambla. Roads were closed to traffic from Plaça d'Urquinaona to Plaça de la Universitat, and trains ran through Plaça de Catalunya without stopping.

According to the Catalan government, 23 shops were looted or damaged, 31 street bins were set on fire and 14 officers of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's regional police, were injured, four of them seriously. Police arrested 128 people, 72 of them under 18, and identified around 450 more from their documents. By 26 October there were 130 arrests, 76 of them teenagers.

Those arrested face charges of public disorder, criminal damage, burglary and assaulting police officers. Prosecutors asked for six teenagers to be held in a secure youth centre, and the court ordered it for three. For more than 20 others, prosecutors asked for supervision and a ban on going within a kilometre of any gathering.

The same evening, around 200 teenagers turned up at Puerta del Sol in Madrid. The national police (Policía Nacional) checked their documents, and no arrests were reported.

Blocus: who they are and where they are calling people on 31 October

Blocus is French for ‘blockade’. In France it means a school blockade: since mid-September, secondary school students there have been blocking school entrances in protest against education cuts and rising prices. Spanish accounts took the word and the signature ‘Estudiantes por un instituto de calidad’ (students for a good school), but nobody knows who is behind them. The first accounts appeared on 18 and 19 October. QR codes on their posters led teenagers into closed WhatsApp and Telegram groups, with about 700 members each in Barcelona and Madrid. The Mossos and the Policía Nacional are jointly trying to identify who runs them, and the authorities have told WhatsApp and Telegram to shut these chats down.

For 31 October, Halloween, the accounts are calling people out again. According to the fact-checking site Newtral, in Barcelona the meeting points are Plaça de Catalunya at 5pm and Passeig de Gràcia by Casa Milà at 8pm. On 27 October Blocus itself called off the Madrid gatherings at Puerta del Sol and Plaza de España on TikTok, but the police remain on alert. In Valencia an anonymous account is calling people to the bullring, the Plaza de Toros, in the afternoon. That poster image was made with AI, and a similar call a week earlier drew almost nobody. Other cities are mentioned too: Málaga, Zaragoza, Bilbao, Badalona. By the count of Maldita, another fact-checker, similar calls for 31 October are circulating in 46 cities in nine European countries, and the accounts name 2 and 30 November as the next dates.

A ‘protest calendar’ from a private company is also doing the rounds online. The police have not confirmed it, so we are not repeating it.

What to do if you are caught near a riot

On 24 October the Mossos posted a short message on X: stay away. In a crowd, police have no time to work out who came to smash things and who is just filming.

• Turn into a side street, away from the square, and don't go back for anything you dropped.
• Carry ID, such as your TIE residence card or your passport. The police can ask anyone nearby for it, and without it the check will take longer.
• Follow the official accounts on X: the Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia, the Policía Nacional in the rest of Spain, and your region's 112 service. Don't wait for a phone alert (ES-Alert). That system is used for floods and other disasters.
• If someone is hurt or a car is on fire, call 112. They answer in English too.
• Agree with your children where to meet if you get separated, and make sure their phones are charged.

If you were planning to take the children into central Barcelona for Halloween on 31 October, celebrate somewhere else. Our guide to Halloween in Spain has ideas from Valencia to Granada.

If you own a shop, salon or café: who pays for a broken window

Damage from riots in Spain is paid by the state fund, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros. Your own insurance company does not pay it. The law puts riots (tumulto popular in Spanish) in the same category as floods and terrorist attacks. We covered floods in our article on DANA storms, and the procedure is similar.

The Consorcio pays when three things are true:

• On the day of the riot you had a paid-up property policy: fire, theft, glass, equipment, or a combined business policy (multirriesgo comercio). The Consorcio charge is already part of such a policy and appears as a separate line on your receipt. Liability-only insurance does not entitle you to a payout.
• The damage was caused by a riot. If your window was smashed during a demonstration lawfully notified to the authorities, or during a lawful strike, the Consorcio usually does not pay. Nobody notified the gathering on 24 October.
• A Consorcio assessor agrees that it was a tumulto popular. The Consorcio decides this itself, case by case.

For businesses, an excess of 7% of the damage is deducted from the payout. Homes and cars have no excess. Business interruption and lost takings are paid only if your policy expressly covers them. On stolen stock the Consorcio gives no clear answer, so ask your agent and the Consorcio itself before you count on that money.

What to do before 31 October

• Find your policy and check what it covers: the premises, the shop window, stock, equipment. If anything is unclear, call your agent now, before anything happens.
• Photograph the shop floor, the window and your stock, and save the photos and supplier invoices to the cloud. After a riot, the damage is assessed from them.
• If your premises are near one of the squares named in the calls, close early, pull down the shutters and don't leave cash in the till. Barcelona City Council and the Catalan government have promised to send shops advice when there is a risk again.

What to do if you already have damage

• Report it to the police (make a denuncia) and keep a copy.
• Photograph everything before you clear up. Don't throw away anything broken until the assessor has been.
• Make a claim to the Consorcio at consorseguros.es or by phone on 900 222 665, Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm. You can speak English. It is best to claim within seven days, but later claims are accepted too.
• Have ready your policy number, proof of payment, IBAN, and repair quotes and invoices.

Barcelona has promised shops €500,000 in aid and a single point of contact at Barcelona Activa, the city council's business agency, to help with insurance claims and speed up repairs. As of 27 October the council had not published the conditions, deadlines or application form.

If you have a teenager

More than half of those arrested in Barcelona were under 18, and Sílvia Catà, chief commissioner of the Mossos d'Esquadra, said that some of them were only 14. They were called out by TikTok accounts that look like ordinary school pages, and by chats joined through a QR code on a poster.

This has consequences for the family. From the age of 14, a young person in Spain answers to a court under a special law for minors, Ley Orgánica 5/2000. Parents are liable for the damage, together with the child: this is set out in article 61 of that law and article 1903 of the Civil Code (Código Civil). A judge can reduce the parents' share if they were not grossly negligent, but the bill for someone else's shop window can still reach the family.

A ban alone won't solve much here. Ask straight out whether your teenager has seen the Blocus posts and what their class says about them. Tell them how ‘just going to watch’ ended for the Barcelona school students: arrest, court and, for three of them, a secure youth centre. And agree on where they will be on the evening of 31 October.

Spain and the rest of Europe

Spain is not the only country with a restless October. France has seen the biggest protests: school blockades have been going on since mid-September, and on 17 and 18 October half a million people took to the streets, according to the authorities. In Milan around 50 people were arrested on 17 October, many of them teenagers. In Belgium people are protesting against education cuts, in Albania against a resort project and corruption, with 272 injured according to official figures. In Lisbon people marched over housing, and in Vienna around 30,000 students marched peacefully on 22 October.

In Madrid on the same day, 24 October, 25,000 pensioners marched according to the Delegación del Gobierno, the central government's office in the region, with no incidents reported. Housing protests have not all been peaceful either: by Infobae's count, 30 people have been arrested in Spain and 38 police officers injured.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to go to Barcelona, Madrid or Valencia right now?

On ordinary days, yes. The riots on 24 October lasted about four hours, in a few blocks around Plaça de Catalunya. On 31 October it is best to avoid Plaça de Catalunya and Passeig de Gràcia. Blocus has called off the Madrid gathering, and in Valencia a similar call a week ago drew almost nobody.

Does business insurance cover riot damage in Spain?

If your premises have property insurance, riot damage is paid by the Consorcio. For businesses, an excess of 7% is deducted.

My car was burnt out in the street. Who pays?

The Consorcio pays the market value of the car, even if you only have basic third-party cover (a terceros). There is no excess for cars. If the car is not insured, the Consorcio does not pay.

Are parents liable if a teenager smashes a shop window?

Yes, if the teenager is identified, the parents are liable together with them. For a shop owner, claiming from the Consorcio is quicker than waiting for a court case.

Who do I call if there is a riot nearby?

Call 112 if someone is hurt, something is on fire or you are being threatened. The Mossos d'Esquadra, the Policía Nacional and the regional 112 services post road closures on X.