AKIPRESS.COM - Spain's Guardia Civil police have detained a senior Catalan official and raided regional government ministries involved in organising a banned independence vote, BBC reported.
Tensions were already high before the arrest of Josep Maria Jové, secretary-general of the Catalan vice presidency.
Catalan leaders are defying a court order to halt the vote, condemned by the Madrid government as illegal.
One official called for peaceful resistance to protect the buildings.
"The time has come - let's resist peacefully; let's come out and defend our institutions," the president of the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Sánchez, tweeted.