Spain has declared a national state of emergency and imposed a night-time curfew in an effort to help control a new spike in Covid-19 infections.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the curfew, which came into force on Sunday night, would be in place between the hours of 11pm and 06am.
Under the measures, local authorities can also ban travel between regions.
Mr Sánchez said he would ask parliament to extend the new rules, initially in force for 15 days, to six months.
Spain was hit hard during the first wave of the pandemic earlier this year and at the time imposed a much more restrictive lockdown – one of the toughest in the world.
Like many other European regions, however, it has been hit by a second wave of infections.
In Italy, new restrictions were also announced on Sunday. The government said the steady rise in cases there was causing a huge strain on the country’s health services.
Mr Sánchez said different regions would have up to an hour of flexibility if they wanted to modify the duration of the overnight curfew.
The new measures announced include a limit on public and private gatherings of different households to a maximum of six people.
More than half of Spain’s 17 regions had been calling for tighter restrictions, and the latest measures will apply to all regions except the Canary Islands.
The same level of emergency was introduced during the first wave of the pandemic in April.
Spain has passed one million cases since it began and nearly 35,000 people have died.
