More than 300 Africans tear through razor-wire fence to get into Europe
Officials said an estimated 650 people tried to cross, and about 350 succeeded, in the predawn surge into Melilla, a small, crowded enclave on Morocco's northern coast. Police on both sides were overwhelmed.
"There were just too many of us," said Fofama Issa, a 28-year-old man from Mali, sitting barefoot in an overflowing holding facility after the melee.
About 135 immigrants were injured, as were seven police officers.
The surge surprised a Spanish security contingent boosted by army troops after similar rushes last week including one that left five Africans dead in another Spanish enclave, Ceuta and embarrassed a government that had been relying on new, higher barriers.
"The government can handle this problem," Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said, adding that cooperation from Morocco was essential.
After scaling a 10-foot fence topped with razor- wire, the immigrants clambered up a newly elevated second fence twice as high, ripping through the mesh of the barrier. The weight of the immigrants brought down at least two 60-feet-long strips of the fence, leaving the fence with gaping holes.
Hours later, shoes, gloves, shirts and other pieces of clothing dangled from the barrier.
Blood stained a guard rail along a road that runs past the fence, and the road itself.
At the holding center, already housing more than 1,000 people, the first of the new arrivals showed up in filthy, torn and bloodstained clothes, many of them bandaged or limping in cheap plastic sandals.
The Africans arriving in Melilla have often made treks lasting more than two years, working their way north from some of the continent's poorest countries, then spent months in the bush in Morocco while waiting to cross over into Spain.
"We were just tired of living in the forest," said Sega Sow, a 19-year-old from Guinea Bissau, wearing a sports jersey and pants stained with blood.
Soldiers boosted security in Melilla and Ceuta last week after an estimated 1,000 men used makeshift ladders to try to get over the fences.
Melilla Mayor Juan Jose Imbroda called for better cooperation with Morocco.
"The solution has to come from the other side of the border," he told Cadena Ser radio.
"I don't know if the Moroccan forces are deployed somewhere else or they let down their guard."
