A young woman hugs a firemen and other queue to lay flowers on ballot boxes used during the Catalan independence referendum in Pineda de Mar, on October 3, 2017, during a general strike in Catalonia. Hundreds of thousands of Catalans rallied in fury at police violence against voters during a banned referendum on independence, as Madrid accused the region's leaders of "inciting rebellion". Police unions and political experts warned that Spain's government risks losing control of the north eastern region as the country plunges deeper into its worst political crisis since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1977. / AFP PHOTO / Lola BOU