Migrants die storming Spain-Africa border fence

MELILLA/RABAT - Two men were killed in the latest attempt by African migrants to storm Spain's border fence with Morocco, and at least one of them was likely shot, Spanish and Moroccan officials have said said.

The men died when up to 70 migrants rushed the 6-metre high fence at dawn on Monday local time with make-shift ladders.

Moroccan guards fired warning shots to stop them entering Spain's African enclave of Melilla, the officials said.

It was the first mass assault on Spain's African enclaves since October 2005. Then, six men were shot dead when Moroccan troops opened fire on more than 100 migrants.

One of the dead men fell onto the Spanish side of the fence while the other died on the way to a Moroccan hospital. At least eight others were seriously injured by razor wire.

"We have various hypotheses but the first we are working on is that the cause of death was a gunshot," Spanish government official Jose Fernandez Chacon said of the migrant whose body was recovered in Melilla.

Madrid has since sent more troops to its border and doubled the height of its border fence to block migrants who spend months travelling through Africa in the hope of reaching Europe.

Separately on Monday, Moroccan authorities found the bodies of 21 migrants who drowned when a boat carrying them towards Spain's Canary Islands sank off the coast of West Sahara.

Eighteen corpses were washed up shortly after dawn on Monday and three were found later, Moroccan officials said.

- REUTERS