MADRID (AFP) — Dozens of African would-be immigrants to Europe late Sunday made a fresh attempt to storm through a border post of the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Morocco, but were repulsed, Spanish media reported.
The attempt, following an earlier one the previous night, came during the televised penalty shootout between Spain and Italy in the EURO-2008 quarter finals, local officials told the Europa Press agency.
The African assailants were repulsed by Moroccan and Spanish police, who were on their guard after the first attempt by up to 70 people from sub-Saharan Africa to force their way into Melilla at dawn through the Beni-Enzar border post.
Several border guards suffered injuries, local officials said.
Spanish national radio said many among the illegal border crossers were armed with sticks and threw stones at the men manning the frontier.
It was the first major attack on Melilla by Africans seeking to migrate to Europe since July 2006, when one of them was killed in the attempt.
In 2005, 14 would-be immigrants were killed, some of them by bullets fired by Spanish or Moroccan forces, as they tried to climb over the fences around Melilla and also Ceuta, the other Spanish enclave in north Africa.
Sunday's incidents came amid reports of a rising flow of illegal African immigrants to Spain, especially through Spain's Canary islands off the west African coast.
Spain's El Pais newspaper said Sunday that the number of illegals arriving in the Canaries would soon swell further as the western African nation of Mauritania recently lifted a ban on fishing.
The fishing boats are used by clandestine immigrants to travel to the Canary Islands.
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