Police have been filmed violently tackling voters as they try to prevent a banned vote in Catalonia, Spain. The footage appears to show people being thrown and a women being pulled by her hair.
One voter, Júlia Graell, told the BBC that "police started to kick people, young and old", adding: "Today, I have seen the worst actions that a government can do to the people of its own country."
Catalan emergency officials say over 800 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia's independence referendum. In Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests. TV footage showed riot police using batons to beat a group of firefighters who were protecting crowds in Girona.
Ahead of the vote, Spain's central government sent in large numbers of national police and paramilitary forces to prevent the vote from taking place. Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned the excessive violence directed against what she called the region's "defenseless" population.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to take any responsibility for the violence, saying instead that Catalonians were "fooled into taking part in an illegal vote."
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