The Murcia town of Torre Pacheco experienced tense moments tonight as groups of youths,"many of them from outside" according to the mayor, Pedro Roca (PP), clashed with police and Civil Guard officers deployed after several extremist groups carried out so-called"immigrant hunts." The president of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, also spoke out, stating that those responsible for the attack on the Torre Pacheco resident that sparked all this violence"will be brought to justice."
In the town, which is home to 30% immigrants (double the Spanish average), several groups of people have begun heckling and throwing objects at riot police and municipal police deployed by both the City Council and the Government Delegation. They have set up barricades and set them on fire, at times uncontrollable by law enforcement. They have also clashed with the few North African immigrants they encountered, some of whom have confronted them, resulting in tense moments, one arrest, and three minor injuries.
"People who are not from the town have come to complicate our coexistence," Roca declared, apparently pointing to groups such as Deport Them Now or Desokupa
, who have called on their followers to go to Torre Pacheco to"hunt for immigrants.""Those responsible for the attacks will be held accountable before the courts and the full force of the law will have to fall upon them, of course. I understand everyone's frustration, but we must trust in the state's security forces and the law, of course," López Miras asserted."Those responsible for the attacks will be held accountable before the courts and the full force of the law will have to fall upon them, of course. I understand everyone's frustration, but we must trust in the state's security forces and the law, of course," he asserted.
For this reason, he has called for calm."The residents of Torre Pacheco want to live in peace and want to coexist as they have until now. And the calls for violence that we are seeing from both sides cannot be allowed or tolerated." The president of Murcia has emphasized that the citizens of Torre Pacheco "are honorable, honest, hard-working men and women who have lived peacefully together in their town for many years. And they do not want this to happen. And they will not allow it either."
The Government delegate in the Region of Murcia, Mariola Guevara, has confirmed the arrest of a person after a night marked by riots that also resulted in three minor injuries."The concentration that arose around 10:00 at night was like two sides, two sides where the Civil Guard always made that barrier to avoid clashes between them and that there would be (...) greater damage in this regard," in statements to Canal 24 horas collected by Europa Press.
"We are very present there and with a large deployment of Civil Guard," the Government delegate continued in her explanation, noting that there are currently"several groups" that are "having small clashes" that have been contained thanks to the presence of agents "equipped with the necessary materials" and that, for now, they have not had to intervene beyond containing them to avoid violent situations.
He also indicated that"every single street" is patrolled by Civil Guard officers. He also noted that there are"several open and very advanced investigations," so he expects the number of arrests to rise in the coming hours.
