Spain catches 300 immigrants hidden in carnival trucks

CEUTA, Spain - Spanish police have caught more than 300 immigrants hiding in fairground equipment on its way back to Spain from a fiesta in the north African enclave of Ceuta, according to police sources.

The immigrants were hiding in rollercoaster cars and under trucks, hoping to hitch a lift across the Straits of Gibraltar, adding to the scores of African immigrants who have arrived on Spanish beaches in the past week.

The police sources said most of the would-be immigrants were Moroccans who would be returned to the other side of a wire fence that surrounds Ceuta.

Many Moroccans have visas allowing them into the enclave but not mainland Spain. Every year, dozens try to smuggle themselves across to Europe in the colourful convoy of trucks that transport the rides to the August fiesta.

A record number of immigrants have flooded Spain this year. Most of them travelled from Mauritania to the Canary Islands, where hundreds landed on tourist-packed beaches last week.

- REUTERS