761 injured in Catalonia's Independence Referendum

Catalan 1

This woman suffered a head injury in Barcelona
Photo: BBC/Reuters

This woman suffered a head injury in Barcelona
Photo: BBC/Reuters

Catalan emergency officials say 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia’s independence referendum.

The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court.

Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.

According to BBC, in the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.

The deadline for voting was 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), but a Catalan government spokesman said that anyone in the queue at that time would be allowed to vote.

Speaking soon after the deadline, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he did not acknowledge the vote, adding that Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote.

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The Spanish interior ministry said 12 police officers had been hurt and three people arrested. It added that 92 polling stations had been closed.

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The national police and Guardia Civil – a paramilitary force charged with police duties – were sent into Catalonia in large numbers to prevent the vote from taking place.

In Girona, riot police smashed their way into a polling station where Mr Puigdemont was due to vote, and forcibly removed those looking to place their ballots. Mr Puigdemont was able to vote at another polling station.

The BBC’s Tom Burridge, in Barcelona, witnessed police being chased away from one polling booth after they had raided it.

Since Friday, thousands of people have occupied schools and other buildings designated as polling stations in order to keep them open.

Many of those inside were parents and their children, who remained in the buildings after the end of lessons on Friday and bedded down in sleeping bags on gym mats.

In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off. Firefighters have acted as human shields between police and demonstrators.

Referendum organisers had called for peaceful resistance to any police action.

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