Madrid - Spanish police have found the bodies of six north-African men washed up on beaches and arrested more than 130 illegal immigrants in southern Spain. The immigrants were found yesterday after land and sea searches along Spain's southern Atlantic coast, police said in a statement.
Alerted by a member of the public, rescue services found two bodies inside a boat washed up on a beach. Another four were discovered on rocks close to where police had earlier intercepted 45 immigrants, one of three groups found. Spanish media reported that more than 300 immigrants had been seized along the same stretch of coast between Friday and Saturday.
The warm summer months encourage more immigrants to attempt to cross the often-treacherous Straits of Gibraltar, the narrowest stretch of water between Spain and Morocco.