Police Move Barcelona Crowds Along amid Post-Curbs Parties
Voice of America
BARCELONA, SPAIN - Police intervened to move along thousands of people drinking and dancing in Barcelona's city center and on the nearby beach, seeking to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the first full weekend after Spain lifted COVID-19 restrictions.
"We have cleared people from central streets and also about 2,000 from the beach, some who of whom were not respecting restrictions on distances or health regulations, but there were no fights," Major Ricardo Salas, of the Barcelona City Guard, told Reuters on Sunday morning. The government lifted a six-month state of emergency on May 9 at midnight (2200 GMT), so this was the first chance for revelers to party throughout the weekend. There are still some restrictions in place. In Catalonia, for example, bars and restaurants are open from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. and the maximum number of people allowed at tables is four.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.