About 500 migrants stormed through the fog across the border fence from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Melilla Tuesday, the biggest such crossing in nearly a decade, officials said.
The charge, described by authorities as "violent" with migrants throwing sticks and stones, raised pressure on Madrid as it struggles with a flood of desperate Africans trying to reach Europe.
About 1,000 Africans rushed the triple-layer fence separating the Spanish city from Morocco at around 0700 GMT and half of them made it across, said the Spanish governor of Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani.
"It was a violent charge," he told a news conference. "Helped by the bad weather and fog, a big group of about 1,000 tried to enter and about 500 sub-Saharans succeeded."
That made it the biggest such crossing since a huge wave of migrants caused a crisis at the border in 2005.
Barkani said some of the migrants threw sticks and stones at security forces. Some migrants suffered cuts and bruises and 29 were treated by medics on the Spanish side, he said.
The Moroccan interior ministry said separately that five police officers and 28 migrants were injured on the Moroccan side.
READ MORE
http://ift.tt/1ePBhDk
No comments:
Post a Comment