Madrid (AFP) – A wave of around 250 African migrants on Monday managed to breach the high defences of the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Morocco, with more than half making it into the EU territory, officials said.

“Around 150 sub-Saharan immigrants succeeded in entering Melilla after launching a massive border assault,” the local Spanish government representative’s office said.

Most of the immigrants were believed to be from Cameroon. Five of them suffered concussion or possible bone breaks or sprains and were being treated in hospital.

Melilla, and another Spanish enclave in Morocco, Ceuta, are frequently targeted by hundreds of illegal immigrants seeking refuge status or better lives in the European Union.

Fatalities have occurred, as on February 6 when 14 migrants died trying to swim past a beach barrier to get into Ceuta.

The Spanish territories are surrounded by wire fencing topped in places with razor wire. Melilla has three layers of fences standing six metres (20 feet) high.

Morocco’s state MAP news agency reported that eight migrants cut by razor wire were treated in a hospital in the nearest Moroccan town of Nador, and that around 60 migrants were apprehended.

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