Catalan referendum: Voters mass as showdown looms

Tense crowds have formed outside polling stations in Catalonia ahead of an independence referendum banned by the Spanish government.

Regional officials said ballot boxes were ready and predicted a big turnout.

Madrid has pledged to stop the vote and dozens of police vehicles have left their base in the port of the regional capital, Barcelona.

Overnight, thousands of separatist supporters occupied the schools that were to be used as voting centres.

Police say they will be evicted.

Referendum organisers had urged voters to turn up "to defend" the polling stations at 05:00 (03:00 GMT) and to wait for voting to start at 09:00. They called for peaceful resistance to any police action.

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In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, Spanish media reported, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off.

"I have got up early because my country needs me," said Eulalia Espinal I Tarro, 65, who was outside a Barcelona school.

"We don't know what is going to happen but we have to be here."

Sunday would be an "important date for democracy", regional Vice-President Oriol Junqueras told TV3, the main Catalan public channel.

"We have overcome many obstacles, there's nothing that we cannot rise above," he added. "If we don't defend our own rights then who will?"

The ballot papers contain just one question: "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?" There are two boxes: Yes or No.

The referendum has been declared illegal by Spain's constitutional court and thousands of extra police have been sent to the region. Many of the extra officers are stationed in two ships in the port of Barcelona.

On the eve of the vote, thousands of demonstrators calling for Spanish unity held rallies in cities across Spain, including in the Catalan capital, Barcelona.

They waved Spanish flags and carried banners reading "Catalonia is Spain"

                                                                                                                         BBC News