Barcelona: Spanish police fired rubber bullets in Barcelona on Sunday as they charged protesters who wanted to vote in a banned independence referendum in Catalonia, witnesses said.
At least 38 people were injured. A demonstrator, David Pujol, showed an injury to his leg he said was caused by a rubber bullet.
Jon Marauri, who is from the Basque Country, showed one of the bubber bullets he picked up after police charged hundreds of protesters.
Catalan president blasts 'unjustified violence'
Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont lashed out at the "unjustified violence" used by Spain's national police in dispersing people in Barcelona who wanted to vote in an independence referendum banned by Madrid.
"The unjustified use of violence, which is both irrational and irresponsible, by the Spanish state will not stop the will of the Catalan people," he told reporters, referring to the police's use of "batons, rubber bullets and indiscriminate force" against people demonstrating "peacefully".
Police seize ballot boxes
Voting began on Sunday in Catalan's independence referendum despite a crackdown by the central government in Madrid which has branded the vote illegal.
Police seized ballot boxes and ballot papers that were to be used in an independence referendum in Catalonia deemed illegal by Madrid, Spain's interior ministry said.
"These are the first ballot boxes and ballots seized by police in Barcelona. Officers are continuing their deployment in Catalonia," Spain's interior ministry said in a Twitter message that included a picture of four plastic ballot boxes and piles of ballots.
Earlier on Sunday, at least 200 Catalans patiently lined up to vote at a school in the northern suburbs of Barcelona as a federal police helicopter hovered overhead.
Just after 9am, polls opened in what the Madrid government and the Spanish Constitutional Court has determined to be an illegal referendum. For these voters who were overwhelmingly in favour of separation, the election is legitimate and democratic.
"This is democracy in action," one man, wearing a Barcelona football shirt told Gulf News as he waited in line to cast a ballot. "Si," he said. He's voting yes to independence.
Inside a school hall, the line of voters waited patiently as at a single table manned by three election workers, ballots were handed out after identities were checked on the election roll.
The three workers face fines of 300,000 euros each while school officials could also face prosecution for allowing balloting to take place there.
Earlier, three police officers from the regional police force kept a watch on proceedings but did not prevent or impede voters.
With input from agencies
