Spanish town subjected to riots as violence escalates between far-right groups and North African migrants

Sky News AU

15-07-2025

A small town in south-east Spain has erupted into chaos as violent clashes continue to unfold between far-right groups and North African migrants.
Violent clashes continue in escalate in Torre Pacheco between far-right groups and North African migrants, leaving local residents afraid.
The small town in south-east Spain has been subjected to unrest since Saturday, after videos posted on social media showed men dressed in clothes bearing far-right symbols and migrants carrying Moroccan flags hurling objects at each other.
Since then, there have been three nights of unrest.
Spain's Vox party has been accused of starting 'hate crimes".
Police have now arrested 10 people in what's been one of the country's worst spates of violence in recent times.
Several dozen youths hurled glass bottles and other objects at riot police on Sunday night, as officers fired rubber bullets to quell the unrest.
The violence was sparked by an attack on a man in his late 60s.
Domingo Tomás was left bloodied, and two Moroccans were arrested for their suspected role in the attack on him. — okdiario.com (@okdiario) July 14, 2025
A third suspect in the attack on Mr Tomás was later arrested in the northern Basque Country, while planning to flee across the border by train to France, the state news agency EFE reported.
"He threw me to the ground and hit me. It all happened very quickly. I think they hit me and then left," said Domingo Tomás.
The violence has terrified the local community since.
'The majority of (the rioters) are not from Torre Pacheco,' said Mariola Guevara Cava, the central government's representative in the Murcia region.
"I ask the migrant community not to leave their homes and not to confront rioters, because confrontation achieves nothing and ultimately makes us all afraid," local mayor Pedro Angel Roca told national broadcaster TVE.
Migrants, many of them second-generation, make up about a third of Torre Pacheco's population of about 40,000.
Speaking to radio station Cadena Ser, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska attributed the violence to anti-immigration rhetoric from far-right groups and political parties such as Vox, which he said unjustifiably links immigration to crime.
The violence in Torre Pacheco was organised and fomented on social media, the minister added.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal denied any responsibility for the incidents and said the government's migration policies were to blame.
- with Reuters