Malaga province police on high alert over calls for Halloween youth riots

Behind these demonstrations lies a youth movement that uses digital platforms and instant messaging apps to coordinate flash mobs on specific dates. On this occasion, they are capitalising on the nature of Halloween as the fair of terror.

However, police pressure in various parts of the country has succeeded in recent days in halting the escalation: in several towns where meeting points had already been arranged, the organisation's own social media accounts have announced the dissolution or cancellation of the gatherings.

Sur has learnt that more than 100 participants are coordinating potential violent actions via an instant messaging group, considering targeting luxury shops and large retail outlets at various locations along the coast. The members are targeting shopping areas in Malaga city, Fuengirola and Marbella and are calling for the assaults to focus on shops selling luxury goods.

To ensure a large turnout, they are asking for the message to be shared as widely as possible.

Furthermore, according to sources, they are proposing diversionary tactics against the security forces and detailing the tools they intend to use to cause damage and confront the police.

In response to the circulation of these messages and the concern among residents and shopkeepers, the government sub-delegation in Malaga has called for calm. Sources within the body have confirmed that, as of Tuesday, there is no official record of such events nor has any imminent risk been detected: "Nothing is planned in Malaga."

Alongside the monitoring of digital channels, National Police investigators are trying to ascertain whether the radical organisation 'Blocus' (from the French word for 'blockade') is behind these calls in the province of Malaga. This is a phenomenon imported from youth protests in France, Belgium and Italy.

Police are working to establish whether these are fake calls to action designed solely to cause public alarm or are genuinely organised groups prepared to carry out the plan.

This wave of unrest on social media is taking place against a backdrop of heightened national sensitivity following the serious disturbances in Barcelona, which resulted in 130 arrests, 76 of them concerning minors, 15 injured police officers and extensive damage to shops.

The recruitment pattern typically begins on TikTok via viral videos and QR codes, before moving on to messaging groups on Telegram or WhatsApp. Although platforms such as Telegram have shut down channels with thousands of participants for inciting criminal activity, the reopening of new links within minutes makes tracking them down a difficult task.

Although in several towns across the country police warnings led to ghost gatherings in completely deserted squares, the Catalan precedent is forcing them to take extreme precautions.

The bulk of the Halloween celebrations will take place on Saturday, 31 October. The official forecast is that the police and security forces will initially operate within normal parameters, although the deployment of specific reinforcements cannot be ruled out if the threat persists.

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