Catalonia referendum: 90% voted for independence, say officials – as it happened

This liveblog is now closed. You can find all the latest details on Sunday’s events in this full report.

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said earlier the referendum “only served to cause serious harm to coexistence” among Spaniards but he is “not going to close any door” to dialogue.

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The pope made a plea for unity during a tour of northern Italy on Sunday. During a stop in Bologna, he told students there they had a right to culture, hope and peace and that recent populist and nationalist movements in Europe were threatening that peace.

Pope Francis didn’t refer directly to the violence of Catalonia’s banned independence referendum but urged Europeans to put aside nationalistic and other interests for the sake of unity. “Don’t be afraid of unity,” he said. “May special interests and nationalism not render the courageous dreams of the founders of the European Union in vain.”

The ugly images emanating from Barcelona and elsewhere suggest Spain has lurched into a moment of deep crisis. Are five centuries of coexistence really under threat, asks Giles Tremlett in this analysis piece:

The task of clearing up the mess begins on Monday, but there is no obvious way forward and nobody who looks capable at the moment of healing the wounds.

It may all get rapidly worse. Separatists in the Catalan parliament threaten to declare independence within 48 hours, even though the results of a referendum held in such circumstances may be widely deemed invalid. A unilateral declaration of independence might, in turn, lead to the regional government being taken over by Madrid.

Both steps would deepen the rift considerably. But since neither side was prepared to budge before the long-expected “train crash” happened on Sunday, there is little reason to hope for caution now – especially as both claim the moral high ground.

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, says he was bound to uphold a court decision to suspend the referendum because the country’s constitution does not allow a regional government to unilaterally call one on independence. Many would question if it needed that level of police violence.

Catalonia’s regional president, Carles Puigdemont, says he was obliged to call the referendum, because that is what separatist parties pledged to do if they won elections in 2015. Opponents in Catalonia accuse him of riding roughshod over the rules that govern even his own parliament.

In practice, a declaration of independence seems unworkable. Many Catalans who oppose separatism – a majority before Sunday – would be outraged at having their nationality changed like that. Foreign governments and international institutions would deem the declaration invalid, turning Catalonia into a pariah state within Europe.

Other arguments aside, however, the temptation to wave a red rag in front of Rajoy’s conservative government may prove too enticing.

Even before this vote, Rajoy’s refusal to consider a legal referendum – along with his history of opposing other transfers of power to Catalonia’s regional government – was largely responsible for the separatist upswing.

Footage from earlier in the day here of one emergency service pitted against another as police clash with firefighters.

• 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted on Sunday voted in favour of independence, according to preliminary results released by the region’s government. The region has 5.3 million voters. Officials said 770,000 votes were lost due to disruption which resulted in polling stations being raided by Spanish police.
• Carles Puigdemont, Catalan’s leader, announced in a televised statement that the region had earned the right to become an independent state and that results would be passed the region’s parliament in the coming days.
• In a press conference shortly before Puigdemont’s, a defiant Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, said no referendum had been held today and blamed unrest on the Catalan government.
• According to the Catalan department of health, 761 people were injured in the unrest. Two were seriously injured and remain in hospitals in Barcelona. At least 10 police officers are said to have been injured.
• Videos from earlier in the day show police hitting people in the crowd with batons while voters hold up their hands, police dragging voters from polling stations by their hair and Spanish police attacking Catalan firefighters.
• Rajoy praised the police and said they acted with “firmness and serenity”.
• Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez urged the Spanish government to negotiate with Catalonia and said Spanish and Catalan leaders had failed so far.
• There have been several calls by Catalan politicians and opposition MPs for the Spanish prime minister to resign over the hardline police response.
• The UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, asked Prime Minister Theresa May to intervene “to find political solution to the crisis”.
• Barcelona’s La Liga match against Las Palmas was played at an empty Camp Nou after the Catalan club’s request for the match to be postponed due to unrest was rejected.
• More than 40 unions and associations in Catalonia have called a region-wide strike on Tuesday in protest against today’s “grave violation of rights”.

Puigdemont blamed the situation in Catalonia on the “intransigence, the repression, the complete denial of reality, the hostility seen during the democratic demands made by our country”.

Carles Puigdemont, the head of the region’s government, made this video announcement earlier. He said: “On this day of hope and suffering, Catalonia’s citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic ... We have earned the right to be listened to, respected and recognised.”

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Unions and Catalan associations have called for a region-wide strike on Tuesday due to “the grave violation of rights and freedoms”, calling on people to take to the streets in Catalonia.

Turull, the Catalan government spokesman, says authorities have calculated that a total of 770,000 votes were lost because of the disruption. “Four hundred schools [used as polling stations] have been sealed and many votes have been directly stolen,” he said.

The turnout was 42%, say Catalan officials. On Sunday afternoon, the Spanish interior ministry said police had closed 79 of the 2,315 polling stations set up for the referendum. Earlier,, the Catalan government had reported that, despite the police’s efforts, voting was taking place in 96% of polling stations.

Monday’s front page from daily newspaper La Vanguardia, the main newspaper in Catalonia. The downpage story says Puigdemont will raise the DUI – or unilateral declaration of independence – in parliament in the coming days.

The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, has welcomed the preliminary results.

He pressed ahead with the referendum despite opposition from the Spanish state and the region’s own high court.

Jordi Turull, a Catalan regional government spokesman, said early on Monday that 90% of the 2.26 million Catalans who voted on Sunday voted in favour of independence. The region has 5.3 million voters.

He said nearly 8% of voters rejected independence and the rest of the ballots were blank or void. He said 15,000 votes were still being counted.