Until 03.16 hours in the early hours of this Sunday, September 25, the biggest night of the festival of Barcelona, everything went smoothly. But at that time, explained the person in charge of security of the City Council, Albert Batllethe notice has entered that there was a young man in his twenties lying on the ground from the Plaza de Espanya.
La Mercè 2022, the first to start without any type of restriction after the pandemic, the one that had been able to avoid two fearsome rain episodes, will not escape the event pages either. Although both Batlle and the mayor Ada Colau have underlined that what has happened tonight has nothing to do with what happened last year, when the largest drinking party the city has experienced ended with a camp battle that left dozens of wounded, both policemen and vandals, and several wounded by stab wounds.
This past morning there was just a knifebut it was enough to kill a person. The young man has received an incision on the side, at the level of the kidneys, and has collapsed to the ground. The aggressor, mixed in with the crowd that at that time abandoned the Avenida de María Cristina venue – where some 40,000 people had gathered at the concerts – has fled. The investigators of the Mossos d’Esquadra who have taken charge of the case will not find it easy to solve due to the confusion that reigned in the place at that time. The victim, who was not identified She has been treated urgently by the toilets of the SEM but has died shortly after being transferred to the hospital. More or less at that time, the dark face of La Mercè appeared again.
altercations
At around 4:40 a.m., Batlle has detailed again, groups of young people who refused to leave Plaza de Espanya so that the cleaning teams could do their job, about fifty in total, have clashed with the police. While fleeing, they have thrown bottles, overturned containers, flower pots, motorcycles and bicycles. They have also set fire to street furniture. “The balance is eight containers and seven motorcycles burned”, explained Batlle.
The most incomprehensible incident has happened in the Creu Coberta street. Several of the vandals have broken into in a delicatessen to loot it. They were carried hams that, in some cases, have ended up crashing against the windows of a clothing and shoe store located right in front. The workers of this second store, mop in hand, lamented in statements to this newspaper that this is the second time they have broken the window. Last year was worse, because they managed to destroy all the crystals and take the genre they wanted.
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“If you already know that the same thing happens every year, why don’t you police and protect the commercial fabric of this street?” detainees still detained for those events.
emergency device
Around eight in the morning, groups of urgently activated cleaning workers finished the cleaning tasks around the Plaza de Espanya. Minutes later, the Urban Guard has reopened the passage to traffic. The Mossos and the Urban Guard have practiced a total of twelve arrests for these altercations. Jordi Martialderman of Culturehas encouraged the people of Barcelona to come back to enjoy their party tonight.