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Two minors spray pepper spray in a Diagonal Mar cinema, forcing 60 people to evacuate
A cinema outing ended abruptly on Monday in Diagonal Mar. Two minors sprayed pepper spray inside a screening room during a showing of La Odisea, forcing around 60 people to evacuate and prompting the response of Mossos d’Esquadra, Bombers de Barcelona, and the Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques.
The incident took place around 6:45 pm in room 6 of Cinesa. Within minutes, several audience members began to feel stinging in their eyes, coughing, and difficulty breathing, to the point that staff decided to clear the room and call 112.
Two people had to be treated by SEM for mild intoxication. Both were discharged at the shopping centre itself and did not need to be taken to hospital. The rest of the attendees improved once outside the room.
The two minors left the premises during the evacuation and tried to get away. Mossos located them shortly afterwards and took them to the police station to identify them and notify their families.
There is no record of their arrest, and as they are minors, no further information about them has been released. The police have opened an investigation to clarify how the incident occurred and determine the corresponding responsibilities.
Bombers also checked and ventilated the facilities before the room could be considered safe again. The incident forced the complete interruption of a screening that had started like any other summer afternoon in one of the busiest shopping centres on the Barcelona coast.
The situation caused alarm among those inside, but there were no serious injuries. The incident shows how a seemingly quick action can, in seconds, disrupt a closed space full of people, where an irritant aerosol immediately affects dozens of spectators.
Diagonal Mar later resumed its usual activity, but for a few minutes the scene was very different: spectators leaving in a hurry, emergency teams on site, and a film stopped halfway through by an action now under investigation by Mossos.