Violence in Catalonia referendum ends with nearly a thousand injured.
The referendum on Catalan independence ended Sunday afternoon with heavy police repression; nearly a thousand people were injured; the vote was called by separatists and considered illegal by the Spanish government; the number of victims treated by medical services as a result of police action to repress the vote reached 761, according to the regional government of Catalonia.
Reuters - The referendum on Catalan independence ended on Sunday afternoon (1st) with strong police repression. Almost a thousand people were injured. The vote was called by separatists and considered illegal by the Spanish government.
The number of victims treated by medical services as a result of police action to suppress the vote has reached 761, according to the regional government of Catalonia.
The referendum, declared illegal by the central government of Spain, plunged the country into its worst constitutional crisis in decades and deepened a centuries-old rift between Madrid and Barcelona.
Despite police action, lines of hundreds of people formed in towns and villages across the region to vote. At one polling station in Barcelona, elderly people and children were given priority entry.
“I am so pleased because, despite all the obstacles they put in my way, I managed to vote,” said Teresa, a 72-year-old retiree in Barcelona, who stood in line for six hours.
The vote will have no legal status, as it was blocked by the Constitutional Court of Spain and by Madrid for being inconsistent with the 1978 Constitution.