At least 18 migrants are dead after thousands broke through the border fence into Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the nort...

At least 18 migrants are dead after thousands broke through the border fence into Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the northern tip of Morocco, in one of the worst immigration crises the territory has seen in years. The breach began Thursday morning with dozens swimming around the breakwater that marks the border, but by midday it had turned into a mass crossing of thousands. Spain's Civil Guard was completely overwhelmed. Scenes on the beach were chaotic. Children and young men arrived soaking wet and barefoot, bloodied from cuts on rocks, cheering and kissing the ground as they landed. Some shouted "Long live Spain" while others carried children in their arms looking for a reception center. Behind the celebration, emergency services were pulling bodies from the water. Spain's government mobilized army units already stationed in Ceuta by Thursday afternoon to reinforce Civil Guard positions. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is traveling to the enclave on Friday. The city's reception center had already been at capacity for days before the crossing, leaving hundreds to thousands of arrivals with nowhere to go. The crisis is now triggering a diplomatic rupture inside the European Union. Italy threatened to restore border controls and temporarily suspend Schengen treaty provisions for arrivals coming from Spain, drawing a sharp response from Madrid. The last comparable incident at Ceuta was in 2021, when around 5,000 people crossed in a single day. Thursday's crossing appears to have matched or exceeded that scale. Spain has not yet given a full official count of how many people entered. The breakwater crossing route, used by swimmers moving around the land border barrier, made any real-time count effectively impossible for authorities on the ground. #Ceuta #Immigration #Europe