Anti-migrant riots erupt in Spanish town after elderly man brutally bashed
The country's far right Vox party has been accused of whipping up 'hate crimes' with calls to 'deport them all' and police reinforcements have been deployed to Torre Pacheo to quell the unrest.
Spanish police said on Monday 10 people had been arrested after three nights of violence. Authorities said 80 people had been identified, 'many of them with criminal records for violence'.
'The majority of them are not from Torre Pacheco,' said Mariola Guevara Cava, the central government's representative in the Murcia region.
Two Moroccans were initially arrested for their suspected role in the attack on Domingo Tomás, while six Spaniards and a Moroccan were held for 'altercations, crimes of hate, damage, and public disorder', she told reporters.
A third suspect in the attack on Mr Tomás, 68, believed to be the main perpetrator, was later arrested while planning to flee across the border by train to France, state news agency EFE reported.
The Civil Guard has deployed 90 officers to quell the unrest and more would be sent, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Cadena SER radio.
Mr Grande-Marlaska said more than 20 vehicles had been intercepted trying to enter the town, many some occupants carrying sticks and batons.
A far-right group named 'Deport Them Now' had posted a message online calling for attacks against people of North African origin.
Torre Pacheco Mayor Pedro Angel Roca told Cadena SER that social media had inflamed clashes involving nonresidents that saw street equipment broken and car windows smashed.
Public outrage exploded last week after a photo of the elderly man's badly bruised face and a purported video of the attack spread online.
Mr Tomás told local media he was attacked while on his usual early morning walk at 5.30am on Wednesday.
He said he came across two young people of Maghrebi origin when a third ran and hit him with a stick, knocking him down before beating him again.
'I didn't understand what they were saying as it was in another language,' he told the El Español website.
'I didn't say anything to provoke them. I had my watch and house keys with me, and that young man didn't even take the watch — he just hit me to hurt me. He hit me for fun. In town, they say the young kids are doing a dare, hitting someone to see who hits harder, and I think that's why they did it — to film everything.'
But Mr Tomás said the video purporting to show the attack was not him, sparking claims that far-right groups were spreading misinformation online.
Mr Tomás' wife, Encarnación, has since condemned the rioters and urged them to leave Torre Pacheco. 'They're doing the same thing they did to Domingo,' she told El Español.
The Moroccan Association for the Integration of Immigrants said in a statement that 'threats, attacks and fear in the streets must end', demanding 'real protection for the affected people'.
The Mayor told public broadcaster TVE that 30 per cent of Torre Pacheco's 40,000 inhabitants were immigrants, mainly agricultural labourers, 'who have been living in the town for more than 20 years'.
Moroccans are the most represented nationality among Spain's foreign population, numbering more than 920,000 according to latest official figures.
Abdelali, a North African resident, told The Times he was now afraid of being attacked on the streets. 'We want peace,' he said. 'That's what we want, we don't want anything else. I ride my scooter and I'm afraid of being hit by a bottle.'
Tensions erupted on Friday after the city council called a peaceful demonstration to condemn the attack on Mr Tomás.
A handful of Maghrebi youths arrived and were attacked by members of far-right groups despite a heavy police presence, footage on social media showed.
Dozens of far-right youths hurled bottles and objects at police and roamed the town's streets, going to homes where they knew foreigners lived, according to local media.
Mayor Roca urged the 'migrant community not to leave their homes and not to confront rioters', telling TVE 'confrontation achieves nothing and ultimately makes us all afraid'.
Mr Grande-Marlaska blamed far right groups and Vox for the unrest, saying official data did not support the party's claims linking illegal immigration with crime.
'It's a consequence of the far-right's rhetoric, endorsed by the right, which doesn't question it,' he said. 'It's Vox's fault and its rhetoric.'
Vox leader Santiago Abascal has denied any responsibility for the violence and blamed the government's immigration policies.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on Monday announced that it had filed a hate crime complaint with prosecutor's office against José Ángel Antelo, the regional leader of Vox.
Francisco Lucas, PSOE's general secretary for the Murcia region, said the legal action came in response to an event on Saturday where Mr Antelo linked immigration with crime.
'We already warned of what was going to happen, that the Spanish people were going to get tired of continuing to pay for this illegal immigration that, in many cases, is the same one that attacks our elderly in the streets, the same one that attacks homosexuals and rapes our daughters in the streets,' Mr Antelo said in front of media.
'We don't want people like that in our country. We're going to deport them all. Not one of them will remain.'
PSOE alleged Mr Antelo's statement 'attacks the security of thousands of people and is incompatible with human rights' and that 'in a democracy, there is no room for racism or violence'.
The left-wing Podemos party also said on Monday it would file complaints against Vox leaders including Mr Abascal, accusing them of 'spreading and encouraging videos of lynchings' in Torre Pacheco, El Español reported.
Podemos spokesman Pablo Fernández told reporters on Monday that the incidents in Torre Pacheco were an example of 'institutional racism' in Spain, 'given the impunity that the attackers have enjoyed until now, something that everyone has been able to see in the brutal and bloody images disseminated on social media'.
He also claimed some police officers were even 'colluding with the Nazis'.
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