Five die as African migrants storm Spanish enclave

CEUTA, Spain - Five Africans died when hundreds of migrants stormed razor wire fences between Morocco and a Spanish enclave. Spanish news reports said they had been shot.

Two bodies were found in Spain's North African outpost of Ceuta and three bodies in Moroccan territory after a night-time assault by up to 600 Africans on two fences surrounding the territory. Up to 50 migrants were injured.

Growing controversy over how the migrants died embarrassed Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Moroccan counterpart Driss Jettou as they discussed illegal immigration at a summit in the southern Spanish city of Seville on Thursday.

Zapatero declined to comment on reports the migrants had been shot, but promised a rigorous investigation. Spain and Morocco had agreed to give accurate, joint information on their findings, he told a news conference in Seville.

The tragedy also put pressure on both sides to sort out chaos on Europe's only land borders with Africa.

Spain announced it would beef up security at Ceuta and its other North African enclave Melilla by sending 480 troops while Jettou said Morocco had recently deployed 1600 extra security force members along the coast.

A Reuters reporter on the Moroccan side of the fence said he saw four large blood patches on the Spanish side and blood on the rocks in Moroccan territory.

Clothes, gloves, shoes and baseball caps were strewn on the ground, showing the migrants' desperate flight, along with two used tear gas cartridges, he said. A pair of trousers was stuck on top of the barbed wire fence, under repair by workmen.

Moroccan police officers stood guard over about two dozen abandoned ladders, made of branches, used to storm the fence.

The Moroccan police chief said up to 1000 would-be migrants were believed to be hiding out in a forest around Ceuta.

The Reuters reporter saw three Moroccan army vehicles containing 60 immigrants handed over by Spanish authorities after being caught between the two fences around Ceuta.

Jettou noted sub-Saharan immigrants posed more problems for Morocco than Spain, saying if hundreds had entered Melilla and Ceuta in recent days, "they have entered our towns in their tens of thousands".

More than 1,000 migrants tried to scramble over the fence into Melilla earlier this week. Civil guards in riot gear repelled most of them but around 300 got through.

It was unclear how many migrants entered Ceuta on Thursday.

"We've never seen numbers like this before -- a group this big and so organised and co-ordinated," Jeronimo Nieto, Madrid's top official in Ceuta, told state radio.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission described events in Ceuta as "a tragedy" which highlighted the need for a common immigration policy in the 25-nation bloc.

- REUTERS