600 Migrants Armed with ‘Flamethrowers and Feces’ Break Through Border
Police said that officers were attacked with quicklime and feces
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Around 600 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa armed with ‘Flamethrowers and Feces’ stormed through the border of Spain, throwing excrement or quicklime at security forces as they forced their way in.
Police said that officers were attacked with quicklime, which can cause massive skin irritation and burning, as they charged the double border fences separating Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco.
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police witnessed migrants climbing over the double barrier, which is covered in small blades.
The incident comes after Pope Francis has called on migrants to flood nations whilst urging world leaders to "forget about national security" concerns as immigrant's needs are "more important" than borders.
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According to The DM: They scrambled over 'all of a sudden, with much violence,' and some attacked police with quicklime they had in tubes and bottles.
As a result, 'more than a dozen police' were injured with the substance, four of whom had to go to hospital for burns to their faces and arms.
Some of the migrants scaling the fences threw faeces at police officers trying to hold them back, Spanish news agency Europa Press reported, citing unidentified police sources and emergency crews.
The Spanish Red Cross said in a tweet it was called to check on 592 people after the massive charge.
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The charity found that 132 migrants had been injured as they scaled the high, barbed-wire fences.
Isabel Brasero, spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said there were no serious injuries among the migrants, but 11 were taken to hospital for stitches to cuts and possible fractures.
Twenty-two police officers in total were hurt in the rush, four of whom were hospitalised for burns.
Brasero said that after the migrants had climbed over the barrier, they ran to the centre that houses migrants once they arrive in Spanish territory.
The Spanish government did not immediately say how many migrants made it onto Spanish soil.
Sub-Saharan Africans living illegally in Morocco try to get to Europe each year by climbing rows of 6m-high (20-foot-high) barbed-wire fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African enclave.
This morning's mass charge added to pressure on Spanish authorities from a recent wave of migration.
Today's scramble over the barrier is the biggest in Ceuta since February 2017, when more than 850 migrants entered the overseas territory over four days.
It comes as Spain becomes the number one destination for migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat, surpassing Italy with 19,586 arrivals by sea to date.
The International Organization for Migration says so far this year that more than 22,700 migrants have arrived in Spain – three times more than in the same period last year.
Ceuta and Melilla, on Morocco's northern border, have the EU's only land borders with Africa, which is why many migrants try to reach them.
