Spanish News

CATALONIA police pulled over a car with a nine-year-old boy at the wheel – his mother acting as ‘co-pilot’ in the passenger seat. Officers on patrol in Sitges could not believe their eyes as the saloon car apparently travelling without a driver passed them. The mystery was solved when the local police officers stopped the car – the driver was a schoolboy, his mother sitting next to him - and […]

HEALTH restrictions imposed across Spain to curb the Covid-19 pandemic sent the number of fatal road traffic accidents back to 1960 levels – when such records first began. One of the world’s toughest lockdowns and continued coronavirus emergency measures put the brakes on the number of individual and commercial road journeys – while numbers of holidaymakers arriving by car or coach also tumbled. And as a consequence, the number of […]

THE number of Spanish people registered as unemployed leapt to nearly four million in December as the effect of the coronavirus pandemic continued to bite. The year ended on a four-year high for the jobless as the health emergency hit vital sectors such as hospitality and tourism. And the official government figures put the number out of work at 3.89 million – a 22% year on year rise – which […]

A RESIDENT died and five people were seriously injured when fire swept through a nursing home in Seville on Tuesday night. The alarm was sounded at around 22.30 and the emergency services received more than a dozen calls about the blaze at the Adorea nursing home in the San Pablo district of the city. The private residence has 108 apartments spread over four floors and about 90 people were thought […]

The regional government approved measures on Monday which will prevent people moving between municipalities – a ‘perimetral lockdown’ – and force the closure of shopping malls at the traditional start of the winter sales for shoppers, with only essential shops opening their doors at weekends. The move comes as the region’s health data worsens; the all-important R number, which measures the speed of transmission of coronavirus rose from 1.11 on […]

SOCIAL media site TikTok and international police cooperation successfully combined to save the life of a Spanish teenager. The Belgium youngster, who lives near Benidorm in Alicante, posted her intention to take her own life on the social network. A specialist cybercrime unit in Greece picked up the message and using international protocols alerted Spain’s National Police – even giving the location of the phone used by the unidentified teenager. […]

THE Spanish government will keep a list of people refusing a Covid-19 vaccine – the shots are voluntary, but the government strategy includes reasons for turning immunisation down. The register will not be made public but will be shared with other European Union countries as part of the overall EU vaccination plan. With the first phase of the programme underway using the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, Spain plans to have half […]

A grey seal which delighted sightseers along the Costa Blanca coast has been found dead on an Ibiza beach – a victim of the growing menace of sea litter. The corpse of the mammal was discovered by ecologists on the Balearic island – sadly, it is believed the seal had become entangled in fishermen’s nets; line was discovered wrapped around its neck and it had suffered an injury from the […]

Spain has passed a decree forcing landlords to slash rents for coronavirus-hit bars and restaurants by up to half and announced plans to distribute EU COVID-19 recovery funds via public-private partnerships. Landlords with more than 10 properties in urban centres who have not agreed on a temporary discount with tenants in the hospitality sector must cut rates by 50% until a national state of emergency is lifted, government spokeswoman Maria […]