New Year begins with assault on Spain's Ceuta border

Around 1,100 sub-Saharan immigrants participated in what the authorities described as an "extremely violent and organized" assault on the border fence separating the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on New Year's Day.

The Spanish government delegation in Ceuta explained the immigrants used "iron bars, shears and large rocks," in the attack, in which five Spanish Civil Guards and 50 members of the Moroccan security forces were reported as injured.

"Although the injuries suffered by the Civil Guards were not serious, some of those suffered by the Moroccan security forces were more serious and one of them lost an eye after being hit by a stone," confirmed the Spanish government delegation, adding that the cooperation of the two security forces meant that only 600 of the 1,100 immigrants were able to reach the border.

The attempt to scale the double six-meter high security fence which divides Ceuta from Morocco was a failure, with only two of the 600 immigrants able to cross into what is effectively European Union territory and make their way to the Temporary Center for Immigrant Residency in the center of the town. Enditem