The people of Gibraltar have overwhelmingly rejected the principle of Britain sharing sovereignty of the Rock with Spain.
Almost 18,000 votes cast in the referendum were against, with just 187 in favour. Gibraltarians hope the vote will put pressure on Spain and Britain to abandon the idea of co-ownership.
On a turnout of 87.9 per cent, 17,900 voted No (98.97 per cent) and 187 voted Yes (1.03 per cent).
The result was met with cheers and celebration on the streets of the colony, where giant screens had been erected in public squares to show the announcement.
Afterwards, Gibraltar's chief minister, Mr Peter Caruana, described the outcome as an "enormous monument" to political democracy and warned both London and Madrid to ignore it "at their peril".
He declared: "Fellow Gibraltarians, today we have sent a clear message to the world . . . one, that this is our homeland; two, that we are a people with political rights that we will not give up; and three, that those rights include the right to freely direct our own future and we will certainly not give that up".
PA