Spain is holding the world's richest lottery with prizes totalling almost £2.5billion in the bumper Christmas draw.
Children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school called out the prize-winning numbers for the annual El Gordo (The Fat One) draw held under tight conditions because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The lottery will pay out 400,000 euros (£364,000), or some 325,000 euros (£296,000) after tax, to holders of 20-euro (£18.20) tickets bearing the top prize number.
Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes but Spain’s Christmas lottery, staged each year on December 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved.
Televised nationally from Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house, the lottery was held without an audience this year.
Organisers and participants on the theatre’s stage donned masks and took PCR tests beforehand.
The children were allowed to remove the masks briefly as they sang out the numbers and prizes.
Families, friends and co-workers traditionally buy the 20-euro tickets, or “decimos” (tenths), together as part of a Christmas tradition.
Normally, jubilant street and bar scenes follow of winners celebrating with uncorked bottles of sparkling wine, but this year authorities have urged much caution because of the virus.
