Police violence in Catalonia is 'fake news', says Spanish minister

The Spanish Foreign Affairs minister Alfonso Dastis referred to footage and pictures of police violence on October 1 as “fake”. In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Dastis said that “many of those pictures have been proven to be fake pictures” and added that “if there was any use of force it was a limited one”.

In total, 1,066 people sought medical care as a result of the Spanish police operation against the independence referendum, according to the Catalan government's latest data. International organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International labelled the use of force as “excessive” in recent reports.