Spain: Madrid's famous El Rastro market reopens with restrictions after COVID closure

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Madrid's famous El Rastro flea market reopened on Sunday after being closed for eight months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Local restrictions allowed the market to reopen with a limited number of visitors, around 2,000 compared to the normal 100,000, and fewer stalls.

The restrictions were met with a protest staged by the vendors, which municipal police officers were seen trying to disperse.

"So far, in this part of the street, people can't walk down through the El Rastro area, they can go up, and the only place they can walk freely is through the sidewalk. I think it's absurd, how many stalls are there in front of me? Zero. So we're suffering these two-metre limitations and there's space for like 500 more stalls. It's totally absurd," said Mariela Bouso, one of the vendors.

"We reached an agreement with the mayor but when we came here we realised that the freedom of movement they promised has been totally coerced. That's why we're so outraged," said another vendor, Omar Espinosa.

Spain, which has western Europe's second worst infection rate, continue to grapple with the pandemic. As of Sunday, the country registers over 1.5 million COVID-19 cases and 42,619 deaths, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.

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