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Horrifying footage from Catalonia shows Spanish riot cops brutally hitting firefighters with batons after they tried to form a human shield around independence protesters.
The fire officers were wearing their uniforms when police turned their weapons on them in clashes that have left more than 800 people injured.
The violence comes as Catalonia, including Barcelona, holds a referendum over its independence from the rest of Spain.
The region's leader Carles Puigdemont claimed Catalonia had won the right to statehood following the ballot.
But the government in Madrid says the vote is illegal and 92 polling stations had been closed by police by 3pm, but this didn't stop thousands of independence supporters taking to the streets.
Police in full body armour were filmed battering protesters , leaving elderly voters cowering in fear on the floor, as well storming into polling stations, seizing ballot boxes and firing rubber bullets.