How disinformation fuelled Spain’s anti-migrant riots after attack on pensioner

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How disinformation fuelled Spain’s anti-migrant riots after attack on pensioner  The town of Torre Pacheco has been shaken by an attack on a local pensioner and ensuing violent anti-migrant unrest – and disinformation has inflamed the tensions.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/18/how-disinformation-fuelled-spains-anti-migrant-riots-after-attack-on-pensioner  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00How disinformation fuelled anti-migrant unrest in Spain.

00:07Last week, a Spanish pensioner was attacked while taking his morning walk in the town

00:12of Torre Pacheco in Murcia.

00:14These images are real and show the gravity of the pensioner's injuries as a result of

00:18the attack.

00:19But this video, which has been circulating widely online, claiming to show the attack

00:24is unrelated as confirmed by both the victim and the local authorities.

00:28It's since emerged that the video shows a separate attack on this man from Almería,

00:33a city some 200 kilometres away from Torre Pacheco.

00:36El del video soy yo.

00:40Here the man holds up items of clothing that correspond to those seen in the video.

00:45Since the attack, tensions have spilt over into violent anti-migrant riots.

00:51Residents of foreign origin, including minors, have been injured by violent groups roaming

00:57the streets.

00:58At least 14 arrests have been made.

01:01Online disinformation has fuelled this violence.

01:04For example, users have claimed this video shows migrants attacking another elderly man

01:10in the town, but this in fact happened in Mexico in 2021.

01:15And this video doesn't show people throwing objects at police in the town as they're being

01:19arrested.

01:20It's a separate, unrelated incident in another Spanish province.

01:24This fake document claims to show the local authority convening a protest against the situation

01:30of insecurity in the municipality after the attack, describing migration as the common

01:36denominator of criminal incidents.

01:39But this document is fake.

01:41The local authority has denied it ever existed.

01:44There was a congregation against recent criminal acts as seen in this poster, but there was

01:50no mention of migration as being a common denominator in those incidents.

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