About 350 would-be illegal immigrants stormed part of the metal fence separating the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla from Morocco at dawn on Monday.
Local authorities were unable on Monday to explain how the immigrants managed to break through or over the fence, whose height had been raised to six metres, in the latest in a series of assaults on the barrier.
Authorities in Madrid said about 700 people had been involved in the attempt to break into Melilla, which with Spain’s other enclave of Ceuta, is the only part of the European Union to share a land frontier with Africa.
An Agence France Presse photographer present said the immigrants used makeshift ladders and added that he had been told 350 people had managed to enter the enclave. The Moroccan authorities confirmed the invasion of Melilla.
“About 300 people from the sub-Sahara conducted a massive assault on the Melilla fence,” said an official in Nador, the Moroccan town neighbouring Melilla.
He said the authorities had opened an inquiry into the event.
About 300 of those entering Melilla headed for the police station to register and be given notice of expulsion, a procedure which gives them access to the local reception centre, medical aid and possible entry to the European Union.
The latest assault on the barrier took place at 5.15am (3.15am GMT) in spite of the deployment by Spain of 480 troops and by Morocco of 1 600 police officers to try to prevent such attempts, usually by would-be immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, to break into the enclaves.
Last Thursday five people died during an attempt to break into Ceuta by about 500 people, 200 of whom managed to scale the barrier. Spain has speeded up the increase in the height of the border fences, due to be completed within the next few months.
Last week Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he was confident that the series of mass invasions were “occasional” and would end once the work was completed.
The president of Melilla Juan Jose Imbroda said on Monday that the solution had to come “from the other side of the frontier [Morocco]”.
“There was not much collaboration [by the Moroccans] tonight and what happened, happened,” he told a Spanish radio station.
Last Tuesday about 300 illegal immigrants broke into Melilla in two mass attacks on the barrier, involving about 1 000 people.
In August three people died in the frontier zone of Melilla in contoversial circumstances. – AFP