Spain's foreign minister has branded scenes of violence during the Catalan referendum "fake pictures".
Shocking footage of bloodied voters came out of Catalonia throughout referendum day on October 1, with riot police taking to the streets amid a bid to stop the “illegal” independence referendum .
“No, I don’t think there is any brutal situation. Look. I think by now many of those pictures have been proven to be fake pictures.
“And if there was any use of force, it was a limited one and prompted by the fact that the law and order agencies were prevented from discharging the orders of the courts.”
He went on to accept that not all of the troubling images were fabricated, but said there was a lot of “alternative facts” and “fake news” surrounding the referendum.
He played down reports that Madrid planned to take over Catalonia's police force as the Spanish government implement home rule over the province.
But he urged the Catalan people to "disregard" any instructions from Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont.
"All the government is trying to do, and reluctantly, is to reinstate the legal order, to restore the constitution but also the Catalan rules and proceed from there," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"We are going to establish the authorities who are going to rule the day-to-day affairs of Catalonia according to the Catalan laws and norms ... I hope everyone will disregard whatever instructions they will be planning to give because they will not have the legal authority to do that."