Witnesses have described it as an “urban battle” scene. Eleven were arrested.
The youngsters involved had been barred from entering the free MTV Madrid Beach outdoor festival, as it had already been stretched to full capacity. People started shoving violently and climbing over security barriers. A bystander told the local daily 20Minutos that “some raised the fences, others jumped; there was much pushing and then the fighting.”
The rioting began in the early hours of Saturday morning. An unnamed police spokesman said that as it escalated, a “shower of bottles” came from the crowds. Bins were burnt, bus stops “trashed”, vehicles parked in the area were destroyed and signposts broken.
Fire-fighters were sent to the scene, and police reinforcements had to be called out. Riot police fired rounds of rubber bullets in response to the bottle-throwers.
