'We won't resort to violence': Catalans react as Spain swipes back power

A day's drama turned into an unsettled evening in Barcelona after Catalonia declared itself an independent nation in Spain's gravest political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago.

As Madrid announced it would sack the entire Catalan cabinet as well as the region's chief of police, thousands of independence supporters packed the Sant Jaume Square in front of the Catalan regional headquarters in Barcelona.

A counter-rally of pro-unity demonstrators drew hundreds, too, as Catalans took stock of the day's dramatic events.

Such a standoff has never happened before and Spain's future hangs in the balance.

Pro-independence group the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC) called for "peaceful resistance" to Madrid and said it will no longer comment on Spain's actions since it sees it as a "foreign government".

"People are asking about (Prime Minister Mariano) Rajoy's measures, but in the ANC we have the custom not to comment the policies of foreign governments," it said on Twitter.

"They are approaching a cliff ... with consequences that are hard to predict right now," says Joan Barcelo, a researcher on political conflicts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Barcelona's mayor, Ada Collau Ballano, wrote angrily on Facebook that Spanish leaders "have enacted a coup against democracy today with the annihilation of Catalan self-government".

She called on politicians to sit down and talk. "There's always time to turn to dialogue. Whatever happens, we won't cease to demand it," she wrote.

"But now our task is to defend Catalan institutions and to fight to maintain the social cohesion and prosperity of Barcelona and Catalonia," she added.

Tensions ran high amid heavy police presence in Barcelona as commentators asked whether Spain's military or police would intervene after Catalan leaders called on citizens to enact civil disobedience.