MILLIONS of people gathered across Spain on Wednesday to watch a total solar eclipse- something not seen in the country for over a century.
The event began in the early evening and briefly plunged parts of Spain into darkness as the sun, moon and Earth aligned.
Spain was among the best places in mainland Europe to see the eclipse, with views also possible from a sliver of Greenland and Iceland.
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Mallorca’s Playa de Palma was packed with an estimated 60,000 sky watchers.
The phenomenon started partially on the island at 7.38pm with totality reached at 8.31pm.
Totality when the moon fully blocks the sun’s light, lasted less than two-and-a-half minutes at its longest, off Iceland’s west coast.
By the time it reached a small part of Portugal and then Spain just before sunset, it lasted around a minute, before ending over the Mediterranean.
Spanish authorities mounted a large public safety campaign as the event came during scorching summer temperatures and ongoing wildfires.
Officials estimated the eclipse could have drawn at least an additional half a million visitors during the peak summer holiday season.
Demand for hotel rooms along the path of totality, including Mallorca, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, had reportedly surged.
The Interior Ministry said 350 official viewing sites had been set up across the sparsely populated interior, while access to another 123 sites- mainly national parks- had been limited or restricted because of environmental conditions or concerns over visitor numbers potentially hindering an evacuation in the event of a wildfire.
The ministry said more than 33,500 law enforcement officers were deployed to observation areas and access points.
“High temperatures, the accumulated dryness of vegetation, and the intense pressure on natural areas due to projected travel necessitate extreme preventive measures,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
Temperatures rose above 35C in many viewing areas on Wednesday, as authorities urged visitors not to light fires, litter or even to park in places with dry vegetation.
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