they're trying to keep the atmosphere friendly they're being real friends to us they're being very helpful and they're saying that they do want to just express their opinion they want to vote today and for many of them it doesn't really matter whether they're going to vote yes or against the referendum they just want to defend their democratic rights and they want to have this right to vote and this is basically the number one message that the crowd is sending here that it is important for them to protect their fundamental human rights. how many plays what the police presence why where you want now medina police continuing to arrive we know that the the regional police the emotional status quo jura has been backed up by the civil guards who have been shipped in from other parts of spain and because they were worried that the regional police would stop the boat they wouldn't do the job well so how many police on their way one now.

why i can tell you one thing this early morning to catch one police officers arrived at the scene and they were just standing across the road and they were not interfering they were not talking to the crowd and basically they were showing that they are neutral towards this position and this is what the spanish authorities are accusing the cattle and put the shop being neutral not fulfilling their professional obligations not stopping the stratfor and that from taking place thank you they're clapping. we thank god being in support of the referendum and the vote a canteen is this polling station voting can handle so people are shouting slogans in support of the defense of cats who want to. show defiance from the council lonely and continuing to clap and to saying and to link on the national said spirits remaining high as they. maintain that they will form

a peaceful protest against any police action and of course we'll see how the situation develops throughout the day as more police arrive in what could be quickly deteriorating situation there but for now medina caution over thank you for bringing us the latest. video has appeared online of officers confiscating boxes and ballot papers from a cutting on polling station you can hear people in the bank branch souter and wished listening at the police the police have also reportedly seized ballot exports is and in the days leading up to the referendum only we discussed the issue of several political experts who told us the spanish authorities are discrediting themselves. probably was not. the wisest of the. and. the spanish government felt that the hand to do something new so adamant did not allow the referendum that at this point. to do. so

it may have a political backlash and more people would be willing to support the independence of catalonia i really do feel that anything that looks like a clampdown from national government on a regional government on democratic expression of speech and expression of use is not the way forward for any european union member state six thousand civil guards were deployed in the region arriving on cruise ships chartered by the spanish interior ministry they'll stay in barcelona until october the third when the spanish government doesn't have reasons to worry about losing this particular region council only occurs six percent of the country's territory and accounts for twenty percent and spain's g.d.p. the region is also responsible for more than half of investments into start ups and almost a quarter of foreign tourists go to counseling so perhaps that's why madrid is so

desperate to stop this referendum from taking place. i. think we members of the former government have been judged and convict. and barred from public positions. because we'll let. that get on with. the stuff in it that you know. well give.

us a. sense of. immediacy about this. i. i. i. i. now the roots of the council on crisis go way back into spanish history by now you've surely heard about cats alone his desire to go it alone in the prosperous region in northeast spain that counts for almost a fifth of the country's economy and believes it's paying madrid way more than it gets back catalonia is home to seven point five million people boasting its own language culture and history which is why many cats lands consider themselves a separate nation. but it has been a spain since the fifteenth century that's steve king ferdinand and queen isabella

for the origins of the modern says sation this movement let's fast forward to the twentieth century spain big. comes the republic and transfer learning it gets a statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away three decades of franco's oppression and he posted the catch last desire for independence and after his death and spain's transition to democracy to learn you got its autonomy back but not enough as many locals believe when the countries can stitch newport's limits from cancer and claims to nations that it stopped the chain reaction. with protests and symbolic referendum in cities and towns across the region some cats and three pressure decades of rancor dictate to the region that would a non-binding independence fight back in twenty fourteen about eighty percent said yes to independence but it was declared illegal marchbanks. nasi do you know

what the feeling democratic cats are learned here is pressing ahead. it seems more determined than ever to be in the sense. we're showing you live pictures now as police do their best to try to stop this vote from happening in council lonia when our teams both here in moscow and of course our correspondent dana question of impulse lono will be updating on the situation on the ground throughout today do stay with us for that. meanwhile another news remaining pockets of terrorist resistance in the syrian city of day i was or what pounded this week by government forces on the ground and russian airpower from above islamic state siege of the city was broken by the syrian army a month ago these are exclusive pictures from the area where several days ago

syrian government forces made an important day driving out i still from the western side of the. for tees river the russian military has now established a bridge that enabled all the calls to cross in a separate mission russian strategic bombers carried out strikes on eisel and positions in the syrian province of diaz to italy. for her for her.

the remaining terrorists india is or are now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces are to travel to the city to witness the battle has our correspondent with his reports from the front line. four out palace once that is sort of most exclusive resort now a modern day fortress out of necessity. for three years the garrison here has what it isis attempts to cross the river at times it was a close run thing and we don't have saudi can on him from the onset coming up to the roof was very dangerous because of the snipers it was really bad but when the army broke the siege and they fell back a month ago it would have been suicide to film up here not anymore. these five star hotel seem better days but thanks to its grandiose design and

height acted as something of a fortress here indeed as sort and just to show you how close we are if you have a look through this hole at that hospital well everything behind that is isis is part of the city of that is or across the river they also hold sway this is all their territory that's the euphrates river and across it is isis it's from there that they shelled the city at will and from there that they launched the occasional raid across the river taking the other bank is key to liberating the city entirely isis still sends fighters and dom's back and forth across the river at night it may take weeks but it is inevitable isis in syria is on its last legs its collapse has been as spectacular as its rise since the beginning of the year the

so-called caliph it has lost thousands of square kilometers losing precious oilfields and strategic towns to the advancing syrian army and the u.s. backed rebels that is. not to say it's hoover or that it will be. isis has nothing left to loons according to the syrian military the families of isis fighters and diehard supporters have allegedly retreated to the town of my dean they have nowhere else to go in the shrinking caliphate this is the final act the dream of an islamic state has been shattered but even in its death throes it will inevitably claim more lives guys do you have see from there is order syria. can ask about to our breaking news this hour an hour from council lonia

where voting on independence from spain is underway and civil guard officers have forced their way into several polling stations across the region they broke down doors as activists inside trying to prevent them from entering in one of those polling stations but police broke glass and used to look cutters to force their way into the woods where the catalan leader was due to vote and it's now being reported by a.f.p. news agency that the council on the ada has successfully placed his vote in this referendum well police have reportedly been injured in class people have reportedly been injured in clashes with police as they they continue with this increasingly violent crackdown.

and it means images you can see spanish police did. taining protesters he was blocking the way for police vehicles simple god officers in riot gear can be seen dragging away people sitting in the road scuffles also erupted between protesters and police let us now cross live to our correspondent who's there amid through old medina cochon of a who's at a polling station in a school that they were monitor luna school in balsa lonna medina can you give us not that it's a what exactly is happening way on now. well out crowds are coming in the crowds are becoming bigger and bigger and we've got a lot of people here from different professions we've got all the neighbor ish all the citizens of this neighborhood really standing here and now waiting for the

police forces to arrive people here are protecting this sprawling station right behind them back the polling station that is still open ration l. where people here and barcelona can come in and vote and there are different people that we see here as i said before we've got families with children here we've got a lot of small children here and this is a very worrying now because we do understand the just a few blocks away from here we've seen violence we've seen clashes taking place between police forces and citizens who came to vote now spanish authorities blame the catalan regional police for this crisis for this really a violent outcome of this sunday morning they say that for cattle and police so their political views their political criteria's have become more important their their then their professional duties and this is why a civil guard has to respond in such a violent way they have to do something that they actually do not want to do but

what they're doing is really of violently put pushing people out of violent violently stopping as this of voting from going at hatch as soon as the polling stations opened in less than. t. minutes now we've been receiving reports that police have been arriving at different school buildings and violently shutting down doors breaking windows pushing people out no matter the age or of the the gender or the profession they weren't real a violent towards ordinary citizens now with been here for more than four hours now talking to different people and we've seen people who spend nights protecting this building not letting it's being shut down by security forces now told of these people say told us that for down it is very important to defend their fundamental human rights to defend their democratic rights to express their opinion and to vote

the sunday. discounted has been mobilizing for the last many years just with these objectives to be able to express ourselves and to say what do we want for this country for the future he doesn't mother but it's raining or is it or because we love the grocery we want to vote we have needed to do extreme actions such as sleeping in schools such as coming here hundreds of persons at five o'clock in the morning spending i have been standing here for hours and we will be here all day if necessary because they don't want to let us speak. it is important to understand that this movement is peaceful and people here are very friendly i know i have been here for a couple of hours down the atmosphere just an hour ago was completely different people were very friendly they were swapping each other they came here with their friends with the small children with other family members they were passing out

coffee to one another and they were just defending their right to vote and at the moment was happening as that's a crowd of people from others polling stations that were shut down violently by police forces came over here to this polling station. crowds are really increasing as we speak and we do expect to see some violence here as well. i came in today thanks for that to tell our viewers a little bit about the people who and other and other important and other important comment now have a look have a look at what people are doing around me see what they're doing they're showing hands and this is very important this is a symbol that they're peaceful that they do not want to violence they want to go and vote and they're asking police forces and security forces to look at those hands anti hands and just let them vote it is a very symbolic gesture that we keep seeing every fifteen to twenty minutes and of course people who have turned out today as you said big the crowd continues to

increase more people are coming out a lot of elderly people also families there as well and also inside these polling stations which are schools of course there are a lot of families with children because a lot of them stayed there off the lessons finished on friday and they've been there all weekend to maintain the to help maintain that would be able to vote today now these people who knew that madrid had declared this vote illegal they knew that police forces have been deployed and now they've seen the riot police they've seen the violence are they shocked by it all was this something they were expecting. well i believe that this was not that they were expecting because a lot of people came up to me in between our life interviews telling me that showing me pictures of blood on their hands their clothes being turned down and for them it is a big shock they never expected the police to really use force against ordinary

citizens especially those who came with children or elderly people there was one man who told me that he saw an elderly woman being pushed out real violently out of the school building by a police officer and. and for them it is a big shock as they of course everyone knew that spanish authorities madrid considers this referendum to be illegal but for people here it is important to defend their rights to defend their democratic rights many people here say that it is not only for them important to vote for the referendum for the independence but for them it is most important just to have this right to vote many people that came here are voting against the referendum voting against the end dependence it is not at ballots the independents mostly now it is a valid defending the right to vote though someone got a showing a sign that bell that to get the job done by any means necessary. and i'm sure

that's instilled a lot of fear amongst the crowds there today how far are they likely to go how far they've said that they'll stay there all day do you think that's likely given the situation of the violence. it is likely. it is likely but it is likely that they might stay their whole day it depends on how violent police force is going to get. will be what they're doing right now is they're courting people over here they're cordoning off the building of the school they're placing elderly people as the closer to the doors and the thing well they hope that this might sam how to prevent the police forces from using force so they would not use force against elderly people but they're coming here with children and they're bringing their friends and they're not going anywhere. ok that's when a question of from barcelona with the latest is that thanks again medina we'll come

back to you shortly. a video has emerged online of offices confiscating boxes on the ballot papers from a council long polling station you can hear people in the background shouting and whistling at the police had. the use of also reportedly seized books is ballot papers in the days leading up to the referendum earlier we discussed the issue with several political experts who told us the spanish will farty are discrediting themselves probably was not. the wisest of the moves on the other hand thing the spanish government felt that they haven't to do something and they had to do so adamant that the not allowed to referendum that at this point they have to do something so you may have a political backlash and more people would be willing to support the independence of catalonia i really do feel that anything that looks like

a clampdown from national government on a regional government on democratic expression of speech and expression of use is not the way forward for any european union member state six thousand civil guard two are deployed in the region arriving on cruise ships chartered by the spanish interior ministry and they'll stay in barcelona until october the third aspirants government doesn't have reasons to worry about losing this region catalonia covers six percent of the country's territory and accounts for twenty percent of spain's g.d.p. the region is also responsible for more than a half of investments into startups and almost a quarter of foreign tourists choose to go to catalonia or perhaps that's why madrid is so desperate to stop this referendum.

i. think. being three members of the former government have been judged and convicted and barred from public positions only because we'll let. them i. mean that get on with. the speculate that. well you know there's a. sense of where they came to me about it that. i

. i i i i. i. and these tensions are nothing new there whoops all the crisis in casa let me go way back into spanish history by now you surely heard about cats or learned his desire to go it alone the prosperous region in northeast spain the counter almost a fifth of the country's economy and believes it's paying madrid way more than it gets back catalonia is home to seven point five million people posting its own language culture and history which is why many cats lands consider themselves a separate nation. but it has been in spain since the fifteenth century that's steve king ferdinand and queen isabella for the origins of the modern says sation its movement let's fast forward to the twenty's. centry brain becomes a republic and cancer learned he gets

a statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away the three decades of franco's oppression and he posted the castle as desire for independence and after his death and spain's transition to democracy catalonia got its autonomy back but not enough as many locals believe when the country's can stitch new course limits on countermands claims to nations that it started a chain reaction. with protests and symbolic referendums in cities and towns across the region some cancellations now compared to pressure the decades of frankly dictatorship the region held a non-binding independence vote back in twenty fourteen about eighty percent said yes to independence but it was declared illegal by spain. nasi do whatever but the undemocratic the catalonia is pressing ahead regardless it seems more determined than ever to be in the center. with spanish society divided

europe's largely refrained from taking sides saying it's the internal issue for spain when asked upset some people in council lonia those who accuse the e.u. of turning its back on the region's rights or vote as an ag media briefing this week journalists have tried to pin down the block to get its you explain now all you have a double standard in a freedom of expression whilst found that four thousand got in other sound out for . you condemn it when they shut down cambodia daily but you stay silent when a member states starts playing with freedom of expression stay shut private websites if they start arresting jewelries how can you say this is cause you do shit all that we don't have anything to say i mean this is freedom of expression anything else that we're going to help you with today. it's an internal constitutional problem according to the e.u.

and the house to be sold into frame or cult internal over the league over their offspring the problem is that this is true until until when certain issues arise like this in the last few days the issue of freedom of expression which is not only an internal constitution not an issue in spain it's clearly a new appeal to you which is if you want. e.u. constitution lolth or not all the spanish constitution or its last place where they were to violence to try to stop the voting council lonia octane is both a win in moscow and our correspondent in false alona we'll be updating you on the situation on the ground throughout the day they do stay with us for that.

i'm back in just a few minutes with one eye test. it's taken these children. now it's ready to take the future. could erupt again at any time. most people have a strong choice. live in poverty. which going to. put some now following a different. the food consumed we. employ the hope for

a better life. the. d.c.s. . peacekeeping when it was only about maintaining peace between states i've been essentially symbolic value when you have militias when you have criminal groups. this is a symbol is not enough you need robust force. this then with the with me in a minute i can on those get a little bit too much as well plus animals i knew but i you. know both them it was a bit of but i guess what kind of sign of this you. see a dump on

a handwritten note she refused to let the city. where they blew he won't get it's just a good area to hunt for immigrants it's hit and miss we never really know for sure but this has been a active area. becky so on. yeah. you know what when i started no i. don't know what hard selling you on the idea that dropping bombs brings peace to the chicken hawks forced me to fight the battle but don't. produce offspring to tell you that what we gossip and public worth while for the most. well the off the

bat doesn't tell you that you are not cool enough to buy their product. that we all live on the one. time i didn't question a line from the council on capital for our it see it falling station doors have been smashed open ballot boxes forcibly removed and people injuries just two hours into the region's referendum on independence from spain we'll be bringing you all the latest from the ground. i'm going to carry on with a roundup of the week's news they include.