Some drowned and others got caught up in crush, official says, as incident prompts criticism by other EU nations Europe live – latest updates At least 24 people have died trying to…

Some drowned and others got caught up in crush, official says, as incident prompts criticism by other EU nations At least 24 people have died trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta after more than 40,000 migrants entered the tiny territory from Morocco in a matter of hours, triggering a political crisis for the Madrid government and unleashing a barrage of criticism from other EU countries. The large influx of people arriving in Ceuta by swimming across from neighbouring Morocco or scaling the high border fence has caught the city of 85,000 off guard and resulted in what one local police association has called a “serious humanitarian crisis”. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who arrived in Ceuta on Friday with the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, is under huge pressure from political opponents and other European countries to come up with a swift and comprehensive response. The latest incident dwarfs the last mass border crossing in May 2021, when 10,000 people entered the territory over the course of two days by taking advantage of a loosening of border controls by Morocco. That crossing came amid heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over Spain’s decision to allow the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, the Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in Spain. Morocco and the Polisario Front both lay claim to Western Sahara, which was under Spanish rule until 1975, when colonial authorities handed over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania. That diplomatic crisis ended in 2022 when Madrid reversed its longstanding policy of neutrality and backed Morocco’s plan for Western Sahara – a move that had caused a diplomatic rift between Madrid and Algiers, which had supported the Polisario group. Sánchez visited Algiers on 20 July – the first such visit by a Spanish head of government in four years – marking a thaw in relations with Algeria.