RABAT   -   The death toll following a mass attempt by a huge crowd of African migrants to cross from Morocco into Spain’s Melilla enclave climbed to 18 on Saturday, according to a new Moroccan update.

Some 2,000 migrants approached Melilla at dawn and over 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government’s local delegation said in a statement. Moroccan officials said late Friday that 13 migrants had died of their injuries sustained in the incursion, in addition to five who were confirmed dead earlier in the day.  “Some fell from the top of the barrier” separating the two sides, a Moroccan official said, adding that 140 security personnel and 76 migrants were injured during the attempt to cross. It was the first such mass incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. The Spanish government’s local delegation said only that 49 Spanish police officers were lightly injured.