La Rambla shopkeepers join remembrance with balloons

Several balloons were floated over La Rambla, Barcelona's iconic boulevard, on Friday at 5pm, in the same spot where exactly one year ago a van ran over dozens of people, killing 14 of them.

The balloons featured messages of love and were floated above some of the stalls on the boulevard and in the Boqueria market.

One of La Rambla's most unique elements over the years have been the stalls selling flowers and birds (although no longer animals).

The shopkeepers were confronted with terror on a sunny afternoon exactly one year ago, and 365 days on, the organization representing them, the Boqueria market traders' association, decided to pay their respects to the victims.

The association said that the balloon initiative has "a commemorative intention and is not linked to political ideologies."