GIRONA, Spain (AP) — Activists advocating for Catalonia's secession from Spain are blocking major highways, train lines and avenues across the northeastern region, one year after a banned referendum crushed by police failed to deliver an independent state.

Monday's protests have been called on online messaging apps by the Committees for the Defense of the Republic, local activist groups that emerged after the Oct. 1, 2017, unauthorized vote.

In Girona, north of Barcelona, hundreds of activists occupied the high-speed railway tracks, while regional police tried to stop more protesters from entering the area of the station.

Local media also reported road blockages on the AP-7 highway, the main artery along eastern Catalonia leading to the French border, and in central streets of the cities of Lleida and Barcelona, the regional capital.