Spain said migrant crossings into its North African enclave of Ceuta stopped overnight, as police began installing a 500-metre floating barrier on Saturday off the border with Morocco, following a mass rush earlier in the week that has killed at least 67 people.
Scale of the crossing
According to Spanish authorities, about 50,000 people crossed into Ceuta by land and sea from Thursday, in an unprecedented surge at one of the European Union's only land borders with Africa. More than 48,000 of them returned to Morocco within 48 hours, the Spanish government said.
Footage released by Reuters on Saturday showed Spanish soldiers and police patrolling a largely empty Tarajal beach shrouded in fog.
The barrier
Spain's Civil Guard began laying the new barrier at 8.50am Cyprus time at the Tarajal breakwater, one of the main points used by people trying to enter the small Spanish territory, according to a government statement.
The inflatable barrier, combined with a series of anchored naval buoys, is designed to rise 30 to 70 centimetres above the water's surface and extend up to a metre below it, the statement added, while a passage between sections will allow Civil Guard vessels to patrol the area.
Death toll and circumstances
At least 67 bodies have been recovered from the Spanish side of the border, according to officials, after some migrants drowned and others were killed falling while attempting to climb the breakwater and the border fence.
Many were driven to migrate by economic hardship, and some were encouraged by rumours circulating on social media.
