Full inquiry ordered into Ceuta beach immigrant tragedy
Fourteen sub-Saharans died after rushing border post and ending up trying to swim around
The government will conduct an exhaustive investigation into last week's stampede at the coastal border crossing in Ceuta that ended in the death of 14 migrants after several hundred had made a desperate bolt to reach the Spanish exclave, the deputy prime minister has said.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said on Tuesday that the interior minister has ordered a full report from the Civil Guard officers who were on duty last Thursday morning when the tragedy occurred. Some sub-Saharans who took part in the attempted rush to get to the other side from Morocco said that officers fired rubber bullets at them, which set off panic.
At least 300 people jumped into the sea at the beach in the Tarajal crossing as they tried to swim toward the Ceuta side. Rescue teams recovered 14 bodies, some of them crushed against a seawall that marks the border.
