Flowers outside the school where Spanish policemen clashed with voters during the Catalan referendum in Barcelona on October 1. (Reuters)Barcelona, Oct. 6 (Reuters): Spain apologised today for a violent police crackdown on Catalonia's independence referendum, in a conciliatory gesture as both sides looked for a way out of the nation's worst political crisis since it became a democracy four decades ago. Spain's representative in northeast Catalonia, which accounts for a fifth of the national economy, made the apology just as Catalonia's secessionist leader appeared to inch away from a plan to declare independence as early as Monday. Spanish police used batons and rubber bullets to stop people voting in Sunday's referendum, which Madrid had banned as unconstitutional. The scenes brought worldwide condemnation and fanned separatist feeling but failed to prevent what the Catalan government described as an overwhelming yes vote.

Source: The Telegraph October 06, 2017 21:07 UTC