Boozy Brits in Benidorm ignore coronavirus warnings and tell quarantine cops ‘it’s just a flu’
DRUNK Brits are annoying cops in Benidorm, as they dismiss the deadly coronavirus as "just the flu".
Angry police have been filmed clearing streets - and pubs - as the determined partygoers are ignoring Spain's Covid-19 quarantine.
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The number of deaths in Spain due to the coronavirus has jumped from 309 to 491 in 24 hours and new infections have risen to 11,178, nearly 2,000 more than a day earlier.
During the health crisis, Russian-sponsored broadcaster RT visited Benidorm and filmed boozed-up Brits throwing caution to the wind despite the deadly worldwide pandemic.
In one clip, shared on Twitter, a half-naked and sozzled Brit tells the reporter, while clutching a can of beer: "It's just a flu that you need to get over - have a beer, happy days, ciao guys."
Other holidaymakers are shown pushing trolleys full of alcohol despite bars and restaurants being shuttered.
A cop tells one Brit: "It's not possible to walk in the street, please go back to your apartment."
But one unperturbed visitor replies: "We're flying [home] soon."
Another scene shows partying tourists singing songs while drinking at a pub in Benidorm, until cops arrive to send them packing.
Then a police van drives through the tourist hotspot, blasting via a tannoy that people "must stay safely at your accommodation or home, and follow instructions."
It's just a flu that you need to get over - have a beer, happy days.
Brit in Benidorm
Spain now has the fourth-most cases in the world.
RT's video follows recent filming of British tourists chanting "we've all got the virus" and taunting police in Spain as they defy the country's lockdown.
In that disturbing video, a group of about 50 people — some topless, others holding cans of beer — boisterously chanted outside a block of flats as officers tried to get them to return inside accommodation.
Meanwhile a boozed-up Brit was recently bundled out of a Spanish hotel swimming pool in handcuffs after flouting strict Covid-19 lockdown rules.
The gobby woman was filmed being dragged from the water and arrested in Tenerife to scenes of jubilant cheering from onlooking guests.
She had refused to leave despite staff at the £130-a-night three-star resort repeatedly instructing her to.
In the end, a police officer had to strip down to his boxers and jump in the closed pool to drag her out.
A second cop then pinned the rebel holidaymaker down and handcuffed her before she was escorted away.
Spain is following Italy’s path in implementing a similar lockdown after both European countries failed to contain the virus in regional hotspots.
Its government announced on Saturday that it is placing tight restrictions on movements.
The stringent measures include closing restaurants and other establishments in the nation of 46 million people as part of a two-week state of emergency to fight the sharp rise in infections.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, has tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.
The government has decreed that people should only be allowed to leave their homes to buy food and medicine, commute to work, go to medical centres and banks, or take trips related to the care for the elderly, the young, and dependents.
Spain is also closing all restaurants, bars, hotels, schools and universities nationwide, and other non-essential retail outlets.
Sánchez warned on Friday that the number of infections could soar to 10,000 in the coming days.
“We are going to win this battle.
"The important thing is that price we have to pay be as low as possible, the lives we can save, the infections we can prevent, and sick days we can avoid,” he added.