'Occupation forces' out

Several hundred thousand Catalans yesterday rallied in fury at police violence against voters during a banned independence referendum, as Madrid accused regional authorities of "inciting rebellion".

Crowds yelled for national security forces to get out of the region, branding them "occupation forces", as the national government's standoff with the region dragged Spain deeper into its worst political crisis since emerging from dictatorship in 1977.

Demonstrators including students and young families filled the streets in the regional capital Barcelona waving red- and yellow-striped Catalan flags.

"Closed for revolution," read one banner in the crowd.

Catalonian firefighters take part in a regional strike called to protest against police actions during the Sunday's independence referendum. Photo: Reuters

Barcelona football club refused to train as part of an accompanying strike, which officials said slowed down public transport and freight shipments in the port of Barcelona.

"On October 1 we became an occupied country, and they still have not left," said one protester in Barcelona, 56-year-old schoolteacher Antonia Maria Maura, referring to the police sent to prevent Sunday's vote.

Pictures of police beating unarmed Catalan voters with batons and dragging some by the hair during Sunday's ballots drew international criticism.

Catalan regional leader Carles Puigdemont said nearly 900 people had received medical attention on Sunday.

But tensions rose further overnight as Catalans defied the Spanish government's vows to keep Catalonia as one of Spain's regions.

Catalan regional police officers walk through a street covered with ballots. Photo: Reuters

The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy held emergency talks after Puigdemont declared Sunday that Catalonia had "won the right to an independent state".

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas warned Monday that "violence can never be an instrument in politics".

Spain's national government and courts have ruled the independence referendum illegal and Madrid blames the Catalan authorities for the tensions.

"We see how day after day the government of Catalonia is pushing the population to the abyss and inciting rebellion in the streets," Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Tuesday.

He said his government would take "all measures necessary to stop acts of harassment".