Catalonia: Shocking videos capture police violence against voters as hundreds injured in crackdown
Videos filmed both outside and inside polling stations for the ongoing referendum on Catalan independence show disturbing scenes of Spanish police variously throwing people out of the stations, pulling their hair and kicking them to the ground.
More than 840 people have been injured in the Spanish police crackdown, Barcelona’s mayor has said. Officials say that some of the voters have sustained “serious” injuries.
People with blood-stained bandages, some dressing head wounds, were seen near polling stations.
In Barcelona and in Sant Julia de Ramis, near the Catalan city of Girona on Sunday, dozens-strong armed police units could be seen violently engaging with voters.
In Barcelona's Guinardo Market, police clashed with voters outside a polling station as people lined up to cast their votes in the referendum the Spanish government had deemed illegal.
Both men and women could be seen being violently pushed out of the building and thrown to the ground, as other people tried to assist those in pain.
At another polling station in Barcelona's Carrer de Pau Claris, policemen could be seen mercilessly pushing voters down a flight of stairs and dragging others outside the hallway. Others were beaten by officers in riot gear, as screams echoed through the polling station.
In another video filmed at a polling station in Sant Julia de Ramis near Girona police can be seen storming into a building, breaking its glass doors.
There have been reports of rubber bullets and batons being used against voters.
