Racist rioters seeking to "hunt" migrants storm rural town

17 July 2025

Torre Pacheco is a typical rural community in Spain's southeast: A modest agricultural hub in the vicinity of fertile land irrigated by a 1960's water transfer project. Nothing to write home about. This week, however, it became the epicentre of the country's worst racist riots in decades.

Last Wednesday, a 68-year-old local man was beaten by three teenagers. According to the victim's own account, the assaulters appeared to be Maghrebi. His picture, heavily bruised and with a bloodshot eye, went viral on social media. Far from conclusive evidence, but enough for the far-right to make a case that migrant communities, who make up a third of Torre Pacheco's 40,000 residents, were responsible. Those migrants now were a 'threat' to their neighbours and, in their own lingo, needed to be "hunted".

As of Monday, three suspects had already been arrested in connection to the beating. But this did not stop violent extremists from storming the town looking for "justice". Dressed in all black, their faces covered while running around waving machetes, bats, and other blunt objects, they have been terrorising the streets for several nights.

This targeted outpour of violence is akin to many in recent European memory. Last summer, hundreds of far-right groups descended upon the British town of Southport after false reports linked the stabbing of three young girls to a Muslim asylum seeker. In May, thousands took to the streets in Poland to oppose creating integration and assistance centres for migrants. And just a few weeks ago, 28 people were arrested in Northern Ireland after protests to condemn the sexual assault of a 14 year-old girl, allegedly by two Romanian youths, quickly turned to violence.