Arya News - Youth protests took place in Spain`s Barcelona on Saturday evening, with more than 100 people, including minors, detained by police, La Vanguardia newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Catalonia’s Interior Minister Nuria Parlon.
The demonstration began at Placa de Catalunya in the center of Barcelona, the newspaper reported. More than 600 young people took part in the protests, the report said. During clashes with the police, participants threw firecrackers and stones at law enforcement officers and set fire to trash bins. Additionally, 14 shops were subjected to acts of vandalism. Large retail stores in the area where the protests took place, such as the El Corte Ingles department store, closed their doors during the unrest. As a result, "hundreds of shoppers" were trapped inside for a period of time, La Vanguardia reported. The protests in Barcelona, organized via social media, had no official leader, Spanish newspaper El Periodico reported. Protests began in France in mid-September, when high school students in the Paris suburbs took to the streets to demand improvements to their schools. They were later joined by people unhappy with rising prices. Protests also took place in several Italian cities on October 17 and 18. In Albania, protesters demanded, among other things, the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Large-scale protests took place again on October 24 in France, Italy, and Albania, demonstrations were also held in Belgium and Spain.