A Kent man has peeled back the curtain and revealed what life is like during a coronavirus lockdown in Barcelona.

Sam Keays, who grew up in Maidstone and went to Maidstone Grammar School, previously worked at Thamesteel in Sheerness and at the Kent Science Park near Sittingbourne.

In 2016, he moved to Barcelona after starting a job at Skyscanner – a firm which runs a website and app for searching for flights – as a software engineer.

Living in the district of Nou Barris, he got married to Argentinian wife Karina Orellana two weeks ago.

Spain has slowly become the epicentre in Europe as the coronavirus continues to spread.

He said: "I live here with my wife and her family who are stuck with use because of the lockdown rules.

"They came over to stay with us for the wedding and now they're stuck here.

"My main message would be to take this seriously."

"We were one of the last couples in our area who were still able to get married before they put restrictions in place.

"My parents managed to get out on Monday on one of the last EasyJet planes.

"Being in the city is not too dissimilar to being in London. There are ambulances constantly on the street, it's quite scary.

"You're constantly worried about picking up symptoms.

"Before the outbreak it was quite a busy part of the city but now everything's clear, everyone's wearing face masks and gloves when they're going out to the supermarket.

"My main message would be to take this seriously because I've got colleagues who've lost elderly relatives.

"I know people with severe pneumonia. The situation is extremely scary. Stay at home and don't expose yourself to something that could turn your life upside down."

He added he is keeping in regular contact with his family back in the UK.

"I just wanted to share what's going on over here so people can realise what's happening," he said.

"This goes as a warning that this virus takes a long time to develop. Make sure you take it seriously now.

"Isolate now before the lockdown becomes enforced, be proactive and protect yourself."

Sam went on to say that although there was a shortage of protective equipment, such as gloves and face masks, he had not experienced the wide-spread panic buying seen in the UK.

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