Anonymous TikTok accounts used the Blocus label to draw young people to Barcelona, where shops were looted and 33 fires were reported. The Mossos are investigating who ran the profiles.
The Mossos have detained 130 people after a Saturday of looting in Barcelona that left around 30 shops ransacked and 33 fires started. The arrests include 123 men and seven women. Investigators are reviewing footage to identify those responsible for the thefts. Catalan News reported that the disturbances began near Plaça Catalunya and involved about 500 people at their peak. Firefighters extinguished 33 fires, and 14 establishments were vandalised. About 210 Mossos officers took part in the police operation, with help from Barcelona’s municipal police.
The call to gather on Saturday, 24 October 2026, spread through anonymous TikTok profiles under the label Blocus, a French word meaning “blockade”. The posts presented the event as a protest over education, echoing French mobilisations associated with the “dignity of high schools.” In Barcelona, the events developed into looting and damage to street furniture, with fires and confrontations with police also reported. Reports described the call moving from TikTok to WhatsApp communities and other messaging groups. Investigators are examining who created the profiles and whether they were linked to a common organisation. Many of the accounts have since been deactivated.
The reported route into the mobilisation ran through posters with QR codes that led to WhatsApp communities and closed WhatsApp or Telegram groups. TikTok comments also directed users to those communities and smaller groups. The material set out meeting points and routes, along with clothing guidance and instructions on taking part. It also said groups were preparing a further call for 31 October. ABC reported that roughly 20 social-media groups used the Blocus label.
The label has appeared in French student protests over education, some of which also ended in clashes. Similar calls have been detected in Italy and Belgium, as well as Germany and the Netherlands, though they did not use the word Blocus. Barcelona’s case fits a wider pattern of online mobilisation. Mossos chief commissioner Silvi Catà said police were coordinating with other European forces to monitor how the call spread.
Liliana Arroyo, a researcher at Esade’s Institute for Social Innovation and its Department of Society, Politics and Sustainability, said the label was connected to events in France but functioned mainly as a symbolic draw. She compared its role with One Piece, the Japanese manga that became a symbol in youth protests originating in Asia in 2025. Technologist Marcelino Madrigal, who followed the online activity, has said the creator may have had a political or geopolitical interest.
The Catalan interior minister, Núria Parlon, rejected the claim that the Barcelona disturbances began with a demonstration or social demand. Around 500 people began looting directly, without a preceding gathering. The Mossos d’Esquadra and Barcelona’s Urban Guard were caught off guard by nearly four hours of pillage. Earlier assessments had expected minor incidents and treated the activity as a possible rehearsal for a larger march. Parlon said the episode was not preceded by a conventional demonstration and did not represent a claim for a social right.
Of the 130 people detained, 49 men and five women were adults; 74 men and two women were minors. Twenty-five detainees had previous records for theft or robbery, as well as assault; that group included 18 adults and seven minors. Only two had records for disturbances. EFE separately reported that police had identified approximately 450 additional people during the operational response. A related Barcelona unrest report covered a separate tally of arrests and looted businesses.
On 26 October, Parlon said the Mossos would seek urgent judicial authorisation to trace the online network behind the call. The request was intended to help investigators pursue the network’s origin, but had not yet been granted at the time. The Mossos continue to review images from the Barcelona looting to identify those who took part, while also examining who was behind the anonymous accounts.
Italian intelligence services are investigating possible foreign involvement in agitation around similar protests there. The Mossos continue to review images from the Barcelona looting to identify those who took part.
