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

My colleague Irene Baqué has posted this video shot by her brother Pablo Baqué in the Plaza del Sol in Madrid.

People there have taken to the streets calling for Mariano Rajoy’s resignation after today’s events. They are shouting: “Go Rajoy. Here we are the anti-fascists.”

The Spanish home office has published a video on Twitter of a Guardia Civil officer being hit with a chair after he had smashed his way into a polling station.

1 Oct 201713.23 EDT

Ben Fisher

Hello. This is Nicola Slawson taking over from Patrick. My colleague Ben Fisher has this report on Barcelona’s La Liga match against Las Palmas, which was played at an empty Camp Nou.

Barcelona continued their 100% start to life in La Liga in bizarre circumstances, beating Las Palmas 3-0 at an empty Camp Nou. The Catalan club had asked for the match to be postponed due to protests in the city over Catalonia’s independence referendum, in which more than 460 people have been injured.

That request was rejected and Barcelona, threatened with a six-point deduction according to club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, took the decision to play the match behind closed doors just 20 minutes before kick-off, leaving thousands of supporters stranded outside. A statement from La Liga said the match should take place as normal because the security and safety of fans had been “guaranteed” by the Catalan police.

“We have not been able to find a way to postpone it. From there, all together, directors, executives and players met and we decided, exceptionally, to play the game behind closed doors,” Bartomeu said. “Els Mossos [the Catalan police force] told us the game could be played normally. Playing this way, with the stadium empty, the club shows its disagreement [with the decision not to postpone the game]. The league told us we would lose six points, three from today and three as a penalty.”

Las Palmas had the national flag embroidered on to their match-day shirts to show their support for a united Spain while Barcelona emerged for the warmup wearing a yellow-and-red-striped shirt – the colours of the Estelada flag associated with Catalan independence. Earlier on Sunday, defender Gerard Piqué tweeted a photo of him voting in the referendum. “Together we are unstoppable defending democracy,” he said.

Read the full report here:

1 Oct 201713.03 EDT

Patrick Greenfield

It has been a long day, and it is not over yet. I am handing over the liveblog to my colleague Nicola Slawson.

Thanks for reading and have a peaceful evening.

The Catalan government has announced voting will not go on any longer than 8pm Spanish time, unless people are already in queues at polling stations.

The Catalan government’s spokesperson Jordi Turull is addressing media again.

Turull says 319 polling stations have been closed by police on Sunday as he condemned the violence.

What the police are doing is a real scandal, a savagery. The Spanish state is in a very difficult situation before the world... What the police is doing is truly an international embarrassment.

The Foreign Office spokesperson has commented on today’s events in Catalonia.

The referendum is a matter for the Spanish government and people. We want to see Spanish law and the Spanish constitution respected and the rule of law upheld. Spain is a close ally and a good friend, whose strength and unity matters to us.

I don’t want to interfere in the domestic issues of Spain but I absolutely condemn what happened today in Catalonia.

On one hand, the separatist parties went forward with a so-called referendum that was forbidden by the Constitutional Court, knowing all too well that only a minority would participate as 60 % of the Catalans are against separation.

And on the other hand - even when based on court decisions - the use of disproportionate violence to stop this.

In the European Union we try to find solutions through political dialogue and with respect for the constitutional order as enshrined in the Treaties, especially in art. 4.

It’s high time for de-escalation. Only a negotiated solution in which all political parties, including the opposition in the Catalan Parliament, are involved and with respect for the Constitutional and legal order of the country, is the way forward.

• According to the Catalan health ministry, 465 people have been injured as Catalans vote in an “illegal” referendum on the region’s independence. The two most seriously injured are in hospitals in Barcelona.
• Although advocates stressed the right to political self-determination, the vote was banned by Spain’s constitutional court and millions of ballot papers were confiscated before the vote.
• Local and national authorities say 336 voting centres, of more than 2,000, across the region have been closed by police.
• Voting has been marred by a brutal police crackdown. Videos 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.
• The police action has been mostly confined to Barcelona, the Catalonian capital. There has been no police presence in the majority of voting stations throughout the region.
• Polls have shown 70% of Catalans want to be able to vote in a referendum but they are more evenly divided when it comes to independence.
• There have been several calls for the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, to resign over the police response from Catalan politicians and opposition MPs.
• Human Rights Watch has released a statement calling on Spanish authorities to respect citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and refrain from using excessive force.
• The Labour party has condemned the police violence. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “It is unacceptable for the Spanish authorities to overreact to today’s events through aggressive police action and the forcible closure of polling stations.”
• The European Union is yet to make an official comment.

A lot has happened in Catalonia today. If you want to read the most up to date version of events, here is the latest from the Guardian’s Sam Jones and Stephen Burgen.