Dozens of people have died after mass migrant crossings from Morocco into the Spanish port territory of Ceuta reached a boiling point overnight.

The eyes of the European Union have been fixated on the seven-square-mile city of Ceuta this week as thousands of migrants have poured into the city from Morocco and neighboring African countries. Ceuta, not attached to mainland Spain, is one of just two cities in the European Union to share a land border with Africa — the other being Melilla, Spain, situated a few hundred miles southeast of Ceuta and bordering Morocco — and has a history of tensions over its border with Morocco.