Eighteen migrants have died in a "stampede" of people trying to cross into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla, Moroccan authorities have said.

 


Around 2,000 migrants stormed a high fence that seals off the enclave in a violent-two hour skirmish with border officers.

 

 

Morocco's interior ministry said the casualties occurred when people tried to climb an iron fence.

It originally reported that five migrants had been killed but later revised the figure saying another 13 had died, and more than 70 other migrants and around 140 border officers had been injured.

Friday's attempt to cross the border began at around 6.40am, with more than 500 migrants starting to enter Melilla within just two hours, the Madrid government's representative body said in a statement.

Most were forced back but around 130 men managed to reach the enclave and were being processed at its reception centre for immigrants, it added.

Footage posted online showed large groups of youths walking along roads around the border, celebrating entering Melilla and the firing of, what appeared to be, tear gas by the authorities.

 

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Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez praised officers on both sides of the border for dealing with the "well-organised violent assault", which he suggested was arranged by "human trafficking mafias".

"I would like to thank the extraordinary cooperation we are having with the Kingdom of Morocco which demonstrates the need to have the best of relations," he said.

The crossings marked the first incursion since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centred on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.

Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border, with Melilla and Ceuta, a second Spanish enclave, becoming a magnet for migrants trying to get into Europe over the last decade.

 

Last year, Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta, allowing thousands of migrants to cross into Spain.

Tensions between the two countries began to thaw earlier this year after Spain backed Morocco's plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence

 

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