Human rights groups have called for government investigations after more than 20 people died when about 2,000 migrants tried to breach the perimeter fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. The migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, attempted to scale a barbed wire-topped fence on Friday, leading to violent clashes with Moroccan police and Spanish security forces around the perimeter of the territory on the north African coast. Morocco said that 23 migrants were killed and scores injured in what it described as a “stampede”, with some crushed and others falling from the top of the fence. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) put the death toll at 29, citing local medical officials.

 The deaths mark the most serious incident at Melilla, which together with Ceuta, another Spanish enclave on the coast of Morocco, have attracted thousands of African migrants trying to enter Europe over the past decade. Spanish police estimate that more than 13,000 immigrants crossed the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain last year. More than 140 mostly Moroccan police officers were also injured, five of them seriously, in the two-hour clash between predominantly young male migrants, some armed with sticks and stones, and security forces in riot gear who fired tear gas into the crowd. Video footage, which AMDH said was shot by members and sympathisers, showed dozens of migrants lying on the ground by the border fence with Moroccan security forces standing over them. Many appeared injured and some were apparently lifeless. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, blamed “mafias that traffic in human beings” for what he called “a violent and organised assault” on the Spanish enclave. He said Spanish and Moroccan police had co-operated in “repelling this violent attack”. Esteban Beltrán, head of Amnesty International in Spain, called on authorities in Spain and Morocco to “promptly investigate the serious human rights violations” that occurred “on both sides of the border”.