New Wave of Stabbings in Catalonia: Ten in One Week, and One Dead

Dark Week in Catalonia, with multiple knife attacks that have left several injured and one dead. This week has been the culmination of a surge in violence, reminiscent of the last week of June last year. Meanwhile, the Govern has several emergency plans underway to end knife violence, gun violence, repeat offenses, and organized crime.

As we warned a few days ago, the plans are being deployed without sufficient force to make up for lost time. The Interior Minister, Núria Parlon, has already warned more than once that the results will take time to show. But the degradation in which Catalonia is immersed forces her department to race against the clock.

A Dozen Attacks and One Dead

The week began with the Mossos searching for two individuals who had injured a woman with a knife and sexually assaulted her in Sant Miquel de Balenyà (Girona). On the same Monday, the 7th, a young man was seriously stabbed in the La Florida neighborhood of L'Hospitalet during the violent robbery of his mobile phone.

After a couple of more or less calm days, on the 10th, two more people were stabbed during a gang fight at a metro station in L'Hospitalet.

The next day, a man was injured after being stabbed during a fight on a bar terrace in Castelldefels. On the same day, there were two stabbings, one of them very serious with a stab wound to the chest, in the center of Barcelona. Also, on Friday the 11th, a man was injured with a knife in Lleida.

The culmination of this whirlwind of violence was the early morning of Saturday the 12th, when a man was fatally stabbed on the promenade of Roda de Berà (Tarragona). Witnesses pointed to several people of foreign origin as the perpetrators of the attack. The Mossos d'Esquadra would have already identified them and would be working to locate them and clarify the motives for the deadly attack.

The week ended with a fight between several people in Hospitalet, which left two injured, one of them seriously stabbed in the abdomen.

Eleven Stabbing Deaths in 2025

With these, there are already eleven stabbing fatalities in Catalonia so far this year. A much more tragic reality if we add the deaths by firearms. In January alone, five deaths were recorded, and the following month eight in a single month.

Most of those homicides were related to the world of mafias and organized crime. Many of them were committed with firearms and in private homes. This week's wave of events is different because most are stabbings in score-settling, robberies, or fights.

Interior reinforced the dagger plan against knives in September last year, which allowed for the seizure of almost 11,500. According to the Mossos d'Esquadra, they intercepted 4,500 knives and 560 firearms in just six months. They acknowledged being alarmed by the large number of war weapons they found, such as assault rifles.

More Involvement, But Still Insufficient

The situation is still far from that dark week in June 2024 when there were seven homicides in just a few days. The then Interior Minister hid, only to appear a few days later in a humorous video of his own bloopers. Joan Ignasi Elena always denied the problem of insecurity in Catalonia.

Núria Parlon arrived with the will to reverse the situation, and unlike her predecessor, she acknowledged the problem and applied urgent measures. Just a few days ago, Interior deployed Operation Kanpai with more than 1,000 agents against repeat offenses in Barcelona and the metropolitan area. There are also specific plans to end stabbings and gun attacks.

It is undeniable that there is more involvement from the institutions, but coming from where we come from, and given the situation in which Catalonia finds itself, it is still insufficient. The dark week we just went through is a new warning.