RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control."
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.
Ceuta and Melilla — two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean — have long been targeted by migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe. Many attempt to climb over barbed wire fences encircling the autonomous cities or reaching the exclaves by sea.
Nationwide, Moroccan security forces stopped more than 45,000 migration attempts from January to early September, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In August alone, more than 11,000 migration attempts were prevented in the region around Ceuta and another 3,000 in the area around Melilla, it said in a statement.
Last month, thousands of migrants attempted to cross into Ceuta, including hundreds of young people who tried to swim their way around controls, according to Spanish authorities.
This story has been corrected to show that the figures for aborted migration attempts around Ceuta and Melilla are for August only, not the whole year.
Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
People thought to be migrants stand on top of hill at the Tarajal border in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Antonio Sempera/Europa Press via AP)
KARTALKAYA, Turkey (AP) — As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood helpless, paralyzed by the horror unfolding before them: people leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help and others making the harrowing decision to leap out.
The fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalya, in the Koroglu mountains in Bolu province, on Tuesday left at least 76 people dead and 51 injured. It came near the start of a two-week winter break for schools when hotels in the region are filled to capacity.
“There was no one around. They were calling for firefighters. They were breaking the windows. Some could no longer stand the smoke and flames, and they jumped,” Cetin, an employee at a hotel adjacent to the Grand Kartal, told The Associated Press.
Her colleague, Karakisa said: “It was awful. We were terrified. People were screaming. The cries of children especially affected us. We wanted to help but there was nothing we could do. I couldn’t look it was so terrifying.”
Authorities have assigned six prosecutors to investigate the cause of the fire, which appeared to have started at the restaurant section on the fourth floor of of the wooden-clad hotel and spread quickly through to the upper floors.
At least nine people have been detained for questioning, including the hotel owner.
Flags at government buildings and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad were lowered to half-staff as the nation shocked by the disaster observed a day of mourning for the victims.
Only 45 of the 76 bodies have been identified so far, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said late Tuesday.
One of the injured was in serious condition, while 29 others were treated and released, the Health Ministry said.
The hotel had 238 registered guests, according to Yerlikaya. The fire was reported at 3:27 a.m. and the fire department began to respond at 4:15 a.m., he told reporters.
Officials and witnesses said the rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that part of the 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff.
According to Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the hotel underwent inspections in 2021 and 2024, and “no negative situation regarding fire competence” was reported by the fire department.
Karakisa said she eventually brought clothes and water for the survivors while others rushed to bring mattresses for people to jump onto or propped up ladders against the wall to help them escape.
Among those who placed mattresses was Baris Salgur, a cleaner in a nearby hotel.
“They were saying, ‘Please help, we’re burning!' They were saying, ‘Call the fire department,' we were trying to calm them down, but there was nothing we could do, we couldn’t get in either,” Salgur, 19, said. " It was very high, we couldn’t extend a rope or anything of course. We were trying to do the best we could.”
“People jumped from a great height, I couldn’t look. There were two women at the top floor. The flames had literally entered the room. They couldn’t stand it and jumped,” he said.
Salgur described seeing a man on the top floors holding a baby and shouting for a mattress he could throw his baby on.
"We told him to be a little calmer. He waited, then the fire department came and took them (out), but unfortunately the baby had died from smoke inhalation,” he said.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed to this report.
Tightened bed sheets hang from a window of a hotel where a fire broke out at the Kartalkaya ski resort in Bolu province, northwest Turkey, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A Turkish flag flag flies at half staff outside a hotel where a fire broke out at the Kartalkaya ski resort in Bolu province, northwest Turkey, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters and emergency teams work on the aftermath of a fire that broke out at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, northwest Turkey, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, in northwest Turkey, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Enes Ozkan/IHA via AP)