Over 200 African migrants stormed through the boarder at Spain's African enclave of Melilla, suffering cuts and fighting off Moroccan police as they climbed the enclave's barbed wire fence.
Officials told the BBC the migrants threw stones, sticks and bottles at police during the ambush that occurred at 6:00 local time (5:00 GMT) at Ben-Enzar, Morocco, on the Spanish-Moroccan boarder.
A spokeswoman for the Spanish Interior Ministry's office in Melilla told the Associated Press the migrants attacked Moroccan guards trying to hold them back. About a dozen security officials were injured by stones, and 14 of the migrants were sent to a hospital in the nearby city of Nador, the AP reported.
Nearly 100 migrants made it across the border at Melilla, the AP reported. They will stay in a reception center while Spanish authorities try to send them home. Most of the migrants said they were from Cameroon and Guinea, the BBC reported.
Each year thousands of migrants try to enter Spanish territory through Morocco, hoping to make it into Europe to seek asylum or work, the BBC reported. Migrants also try to cross the border at Ceuta, another Spanish enclave in North Africa. An estimated 25,000 migrants are living illegally in Morocco, according to the AP.
Several hundred migrants stormed Ceuta earlier this month, with some trying to reach the enclave by swimming to it, the AP reported. At least 15 migrants drowned off the coast of Morocco.
Another 200 migrants tried to storm the Melilla boarder a week ago. Fifty made it across the border.
Thursday's break in is the largest Melilla has seen in recent years. The reception center is now overcrowded with migrants, housing 1,300 people in a facility meant for 480, the center's manager, Carlos Montero, told the BBC.
