A man looks at the perimeter fence marking the border between the Spanish enclave of Melilla and Morocco. Five hundred would-be immigrants attempted to storm a fence overnight on the border between Morocco and Melilla.
(AFP/File)
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Five hundred would-be immigrants attempted to storm a fence overnight on the border between Morocco and the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla.
A Melilla prefecture spokesman said around 100 people had managed to scale the metallic fence to reach Spanish soil in the biggest attempted crossing this year.
Eighteen people, including six policemen who were "forced to deploy riot gear" attempting to hold back the flow of people, were slightly hurt in the incident, during which the immigrants "offered strong resistance," a Spanish police spokesman said Tuesday.
Early reports had spoken of 800 people storming the barrier.
A dozen immigrants suffered slight injuries after falling from some of the 270 makeshift ladders used in a bid to vault over the top of the fence and which police impounded.
The Spanish government earlier this month doubled from three to six metres (10 to 20 feet) the height of the final section of the 12-kilometre (eight-mile) fence to try to deter mass attempts to scale it.
Spanish police have logged some 12,000 such attempts this year as the Spanish enclave of Melilla is an entry point into the EU Schengen area allowing free movement of people between the 15 signatory states through border control removal.
At least two African would-be immigrants have died in their attempts to scale the barrier.
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