Before the scheduled gathering, pairs of Guardia Urbana de Barcelona and Mossos d'Esquadra officers visited businesses in Sants to warn shopkeepers and restaurateurs about the call.
At 5.15pm, Plaza de Espanya stood empty apart from police patrols and media crews. The meeting was set for 5pm, but nobody had turned up.
Officers had told businesses they did not expect the call to draw a crowd. Similar calls circulated the previous Sunday in Granollers and Girona without materialising. In Granollers, Catalan police identified more than 100 young people near the stated meeting point. Around ten people were identified in Girona; in Mataró, close to twenty young people were identified.
Police also identified around 30 people near plaça Catalunya after another call circulated on social media. Officers seized balaclavas during the checks.
The visits came after serious disturbances in Barcelona on Saturday, 24 October, covered in an earlier report. Promoted through social media and not formally notified to authorities, the gathering escalated around Plaça de Catalunya, La Rambla and the lower Passeig de Gràcia. Early estimates put the crowd at 400 to 600 people. Barcelona City Council reported that 295 Mossos d'Esquadra officers and 229 Guardia Urbana officers were deployed.
The city’s final tally recorded 128 arrests, including 72 minors (56 per cent of those detained), 14 injured police officers, 33 firefighter interventions for fires and 23 vandalised businesses. The municipal report also counted 31 burned containers, damage to four flower stalls on La Rambla and 68 administrative seizure reports involving items including knives, sprays, balaclavas, pyrotechnics and stones. No one appeared for the Sants call; police had also expressed particular concern about another gathering planned for the following Saturday.
