Independence referendum: Emotions run high as Barcelona polling station opens

Updated:8 years ago

Barcelona (Spain), Oct 01 (ANI): Hundreds of voters queued across Catalonia on Sunday, to vote in a banned independence referendum. Amid the loud applause and cheers that greeted voters in and out of the polling station, emotional scenes played out at Reina Violant school in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Gracia. The referendum has been declared illegal by Spain's central government. It has also raised fears of street violence as crowd took to streets to protest against the referendum. The Catalan government had scheduled voting to open at 9 a.m. at over 2,300 designated stations, but Madrid said it had shut more than half of them on Saturday. The region is inhabited by 7.5 million people, has its own language and culture and is an industrial hub with an economy larger than that of Portugal.

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