i. i. i four hundred sixty vote. police officer. independent. reportedly shouted god is great. people to main train station. police in canada say it was a stabbing and ramming incident involving an officer of. terror related after it

was found in the attack. we're going to need to you this is. brutal scenes of violence alone is controversial independence referendum over four hundred sixty people have been injured in clashes with military police that's according to barcelona. i. was i was. i. the police

have been firing rubber bullets to disperse protesting voters this type of ammo is deployed worldwide and is considered to be non-lethal but the use of rubber bullets is associated with cases of blunt trauma to the brain and damaged organs and can lead to permanent disability even and. despite injuring hundreds of voters madrid insists that police acted in a professional and indeed proportionate way but some think that the videos emerging suggest otherwise. are the people queuing up to vote here came under ferocious attack by the national guard an older man with his dog was singled out with police roughly dragging the gentleman out along the floor and angrily shoving the frightened animal as you can see in the video where the people were also being savagely pushed and dragged away i and then there's this footage it shows a catalan policeman trying to protect protestors in carly's overzealous national colleagues for his troubles he was pushed and shoved by these two gentlemen here now they're at civil guard officers the crowd watching this scene was visibly

enraged as you see again the pushing in the shoving of the two civil guard officers upon their colleague a local policeman. it was and then here you can see protesters injured rhona in north eastern count alone knew they were facing off against officers demonstrators have their hands up in a sign of nonviolence but police apparently start hitting them with batons we spoke to one man who was injured in those clashes. we saw there will be trying to take us from following their station and we never thought that they would be such a byron's from the police. but to the all people he said it is simply unacceptable we were seeing him and we saying not by islands was thing we just want to go we are seeing we are also hands on the he does with the crops. many people crying over the

port i don't know what they think it's proportional but we know one year course when nothing goes and. i'm asking for our freedom what they were not making any distinction at all they were hitting every one they were not looking at and it's. auntie's correspondent medina coach there in barcelona has been following the day of violence several polling stations. catherine authorities are right now saying that they will appeal to an international court over the violence and the clashes that we saw of this morning and indeed was shot at a lot of worrying events ready taking place a different school buildings that were used as a polling stations we saw police are pushing people out we saw them throwing people onto the ground breaking down doors shrinking down the windows of different schools just to get inside and to do everything they can to prevent people from voting to

shut down polling stations and it was indeed a lot of violence. to resist without violence they could have taken us by the. op but they started shooting with rubber bullets and with bats homes grandparents children women crying all suffering why just for wanting to vote for once the democracy kind of the leader you have united and formed a barricade they detained and mistreated people only for daring to lift a paper in the hands well this morning people were ready to gather peacefully and they were telling us how important for them it is to remain a peaceful gathering but really throughout the day of the mood of the crowd seems to have changed and now there are reports out for injured police man as a result of scuffles between the crowd and security services now people are building barricades and some areas of the region as well as here in the capital

city of barcelona and they're doing so just to protect those remaining polish polling stations there are still a liberation all to allow this referendum go forward and to let's it a finish by the end of the sunday now we keep receiving different kind of videos from social platforms mostly and one video it is that one video can see. several police officers even running away from the crowd as speedball are throwing stones at them now we see those police officers running for worst their cars getting inside and shying to drive away as i said there are different kind of incidents taking place around the area around this region and there is also one incident where you can see on the video with the regional capital and police protecting ordinary citizens self council lonny out from the national guard now it is a very emotional video it is possible to see how for some cattle and police officer

south difficult it is for them to still fulfill their professional do you see it it is a very difficult moment for them and one officer was even crying trying to hide his face and emotions till a man from the crowd approached him to give him a hug and to support him now it was said it's been a very emotional day here and consul for many people it was a shocking experience for many to see that sort of violence on the streets of boston and in catalonia but despite all that fierce opposition the referendum still continues and the voting is underway. video has also appeared online of offices confiscating ballot boxes voting papers from a council on polling station with voters that trying to stop them.

was. and then there are these pictures of police taking ballot boxes away as you hear people in the background filling the offices the police also reportedly seize boxes and voting papers in the days building up to the bathroom. i was right after i was. ridge unionists have been staging a rally that's in one of the central squares there the activists were waving spanish flags and shouting slogans in support of spanish unity and the national police let alone here is a crucial economic region and this could be one of the main reasons behind the unrelenting opposition of madrid to this independent vote. or catalonia itself you

don't know too much about it of a six percent of the country's territory and accounts for twenty percent of spain's g.d.p. the regions also responsible for more than half of all start of investments and almost a quarter of spain's foreign tourists go there another key reason why madrid is so keen to stop the region from breaking away. and the roots of the catalan crisis will they go way back in spanish history. by now you've surely heard about cats alone desire to go it alone the prosperous region in northeast spain accounts 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 posting its own language culture and history which is why many cats lands consider themselves a separate nation. but it has been a lot of spain since the fifteenth century courtesy of king ferdinand and queen isabella for the origins of the modern says sation its movement let's fast forward to the twentieth century brain becomes a republic and cancer learning gets

a statute of autonomy but six years later franco comes to power and takes that away the three decades of franco's oppression only posted the catalans desire for independence and after his death and strange 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 cancer and claims to nations that it started a chain reaction. with protests and symbolic referendums in cities and towns across the region some catalans now compare madrid pressure to the decades of franco a 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 look at their own you're not one up a few undemocratic the catalonia is crashing ahead regardless it seems more

determined than ever to be in the sand. and officials in barcelona say that they are now in talks with the european union to get official called the nation of the droids actions and many in catalonia are surprised by the lack of reaction coming from the european union. the market is the we are we thought and we have. got the i mean we have. asked them. some of the. that have been passed on what we see delays the you can the large dog you can or malt we saw about the long ago all. in all of europe we're work on them that people use where you surprised the unit when the union is no not too much longer than say in anything above that. and. therefore these are not brought

up. for example and some european politicians have already started to react form a scottish parliament in malcolm chisholm called the violent crackdown on the vote shock inquire the u.k. independence party calvin chapman found it quote heartbreaking the prime minister condemned the violence and called for political dialogue and british opposition leader jeremy corbyn called on the u.k. prime minister to talk directly to her spanish counterpart and we'll bring you more on this story as the evening unveils. first. move to another big story today french prosecutors have launched a terrorism probe after a knife attack left two women dead in marcy's main train station artie's

correspondent charlotte duplicity has the details. well we know that those two women were killed following that knife attack in the station at mar say the main station so we understand that the man who is wielding that knife actually slit the throat of one of the women that's how she died and apparently according to passers by he screamed out. or god is the greatest while he was carrying out that attack now the security services at the station waybill to respond fairly quickly and shot the man dead at the scene and what the prosecutor's office has said in paris is that while the motives are not yet clear what they're doing is that they are treating this as a killing linked to a terrorist organization now the security services have been praised for reacting responding so quickly to this attack with officials on the ground saying they fear that this could have been far worse happy not and those security services are part of some seven thousand troops who are deployed across france and have been for the

last three years as the country has been under a state of high emergency since january two thousand and fifteen that's when the offices of the satirical newspaper. were attacked with twelve people being killed and then the country was put into a state of emergency in november two thousand and fifteen after that deadly night of attacks in paris were around a hundred and thirty people were killed in coordinating the recent attacks now since then frances seen a number of attacks including in nice which is also in the south of france and in two thousand and seventeen a number of smaller attacks no current president emanuel wants to end that state of emergency in france and wants to do so by november of this suggests next month and in fact this week the first draft of his new controversial legislation which will consolidate some of the powers that some of the security

forces have had and that state of emergency will be consolidated into their jobs as normal will actually be voted on this week. when you are back on tweet it is outrage at what he called the barbaric act the president also praised the work of operation sentinel soldiers from his initiative are credited with killing the attacker sentinel is france's first wide scale military operation during peacetime ten thousand combat troops across the country are involved and they've become a common sight at transport hubs and tourist hotspots the operation itself was first launched following the terrorist attack on the charlie hebdo magazine offices that was in early twenty fifteen and reinforced later that year but the soldiers themselves have often become a target for attackers. as cross now to british former intelligence officer officer and he joins me on the line now from brussels which itself those all about terrorist attacks ernie the terror probe has been launched no declaration that this

was a terrorist attack yet is it just a matter of time do you think looking at the past of what's been happening across europe over the last few years i think it probably is just a matter of time yes and it seems not only are the isis inspired attacks being carried out against police and the security forces the soldiers whatever they also seem to be increasingly focusing on women in the western countries which is particularly concerning think so yes i think this will be confirmed as terrorist attack just as the attack in canada yesterday will be confirmed as a terrorist attack your president earlier on a valid to lift the state of emergency in france i don't know to what extent you think this is having a positive effect on fighting terrorism but do you think that that's what the country needs right now this lifting. i think from what i gather he's going to incorporate certain aspects of the state of emergency legislation into what is now

going to be a new domestic law which means that the country becomes more a police state under its normal law rather than be in state and urgency so i don't think we can see any stand down of the operation sentinel there will still be a high security alert everything like that and you know looking at what happened in must say probably people quite welcome that but it is dangerous past start to go down to introduce police type state laws into what is a national which could erode the basic tenets of the french constitution so. i think people might feel a bit safer because obviously the attack yesterday was shot from a quickly. kill two people it's awful to have to say that. but people will probably feel safer if some law. though interesting to see how quick we will be to repeal those measures you know should live to resume as if there is such a thing as normal life and peacetime now in europe france to tighten its measures

it would broaden operation sentinel what do you make of that operation is that as i've been effective is it made things any better. i think we're seeing a much faster reaction time from the police and security forces in all countries across europe i mean particularly in london as well with the attacks that happened in a few months ago that the reaction times much faster to stop further deaths but of course you can't stop the initial attacks themselves because these tend to be lone wolfs they tend to already be on the radar of the police or the security services but it seems that they're drowning in information because of the dragnet surveillance infrastructure they now have in place so the not targeting investigating and stopping potential terroristic type attacks and that is an ongoing problem i said this many times but they don't seem to learn from that and perhaps it's very difficult to try and tackle it. well yeah and we have unfortunately to report about another attack today more fatalities sadly many

thanks for giving us your analysis and former british intelligence officer. and let's move on to another attack that was just mentioned a moment ago police in canada are treating the ramming and stabbing of a fellow officer as terror related after finding an eyesore flag in the attackers car of the thirty year old driver has been apprehended a manhunt followed the ramming of the officer who was stabbed several times as well but survived the driver was then stopped but managed to flee in a truck hitting pedestrians at a high speed police chase amazingly no deaths have been reported military expert thinks that such attacks are the main means left for terrorists to make headlines after losing ground in the middle east. as territory shrinks more of the fighters will escape many of them are western citizens who've been going to fight in iraq and syria for the last six years or they have friends with other people in continental europe or north america which might carry out these attacks and this is

to make themselves still relevant and indeed news because obviously on the ground they're losing to syria and iraq so they will carry out more of these attacks to make themselves still in the headlines the international community needs to work with the syrian government and the russians and the iraqi government to tackle terrorism that is the best way because these kind of small attacks will keep increasing unless there's more cooperation in the global strategy on how to fight and stop supporting insurgent groups in other people's countries. ok coming after a very short break we'll have more of the stories that have shaped this week. and take your new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around corporations corporations from washington to washington to meet. the.

voters elect the businessman to run this country business equals power you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. i i i i. i. i i. are. welcome back in syria government forces are clearing

remaining terrorists pockets in diaries or islamic states three year siege of the eastern city was recently broken by the army and allied forces these are exclusive pictures that we have from the western side of the euphrates river where government forces have made key gains driving out i saw the russian military is now also established a bridge that allows armored cars to cross the river. the remaining terrorists in their resort and now surrounded by both the syrian army and the u.s. backed kurdish forces this week the russian minister of defense said that these remaining terrorist pockets will soon also be driven out are to travel to the city to witness such fighting our correspondent rego's the it has this report 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 thwarted isis attempts to cross the river at times it was a close run thing and you don't have saudi going on in 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 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's 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 alms 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 over or that it will be easy isis has nothing left to lose according to the syrian military and the families of isis fighters and diehard supporters have allegedly retreated to the town of my idea and

they have nowhere else to go in the shrinking caliphate this is the final act in the dream of an islamic state has been shattered but even in its death throes it will inevitably claim more lives more at guys do you have see from that as sort of syria and separate mission russian strategic bombers carried out strikes on eisel and in the syrian provinces that there is or under do it. i. i. i.

ok let's get back to our top story the vote count has begun in catalonia and on the day there's been marred by violence with police deploying physical force and rubber bullets the number injured as risen to more than seven hundred sixty now according to catalonia ministry let's get an update now from r.t. course from the medina culture is in the boss the lone of for is medina what's the latest. well it is a crucial and a very important day for catalan it as the day of the referendum on independence of those three gen now we've seen a lot of shocking and very worrying violence in the streets today of catalunya as well as here in the capital city of barcelona people were in shock and we've got

different reactions now coming in the polling stations have just closed and we are receiving comments on the situation coming from different politicians from the politicians in madrid as well as from a regional politicians here and to discuss the situation this crisis really that spain is experiencing at the moment a we are joined to live by alfred bosh who is a barcelona city council republican a left leader thank you so much for joining us here at life and our teacher national now my first question is why do you think spanish authorities have taken such a tough stance on the catalan referendum and they don't really want to compromise well maybe they could answer the question better than myself my guess my guess is that they're not democratic enough because if you accept fundamental rights and freedom in general and you accept that people have the right to decide their own future voting in the polls they would have had no problem with this referendum the

fact is that they are there if they've prevented it in a very hostile manner you've seen the shocking images shocking they have prevented people from voting but they're thrilled that the people who want independence but they have also prevented those who want to vote no to independence and war against independence like themselves so that's very undemocratic we think that people here have been very dignified and that there's not enough police in this country to stop the people who are so civilized democratic and do you think that the manner in which spanish police tackled this issue. you could backfire causing more support for independence and catalunya well it's backfiring right now just look at how people have been voting in the thousands they've been showing up in all the voting stations just look at how the international press like you are covering what's

going on here and just see how people back in russia or in europe or anywhere in the world are are watching these shocking images and thinking what on earth is going on in spain has this government of mr a wholly turned absolutely crazy have they gone back to the middle ages or to generals franco's dictatorship military that they should what on earth is going there in that place and why are they acting in this crazy man but why do you think europe is so silent and we haven't heard any real comment coming from different european officials say and if such a crackdown to plait took place elsewhere it would probably cause an outcry in the e.u. but this is not happening at the moment why do you think so but i think european leaders are also shocked. that even probably didn't expect this or in this way and but we have seen things and we seen the belgian prime minister.