Person seen flying paraglider over Spain border fence

Spanish authorities are looking for a person who used a paraglider to cross over a border fence from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in what appears to be the first use of the method to migrate into European territory.

Footage obtained by El Faro newspaper shows a person landing near the fence and running off, leading officials to suspect the individual was trying to reach Europe.

According to Eder Barandiaran, a press officer for Spain's government delegation in Melilla, one of two Spanish territories in north Africa, two people reported seeing the paraglider on Thursday afternoon.

The identity and nationality of the person are not known. Images of the paraglider were seen on Thursday in social media.

In June, Melilla was the subject of a scandal after 23 people died there during a try to cross the border with hundreds of migrants and refugees. Moroccan police launched teargas and beat men with batons, even when some were on the ground.

Spanish authorities have been accused of unlawfully dragging some people back into Morocco, allegedly violating their right to seek asylum.

Several media investigations based on videos and photos of the June incident have found that some of the deaths may have occurred on Spanish soil, which Spain s interior minister has denied repeatedly.

Of the more than 29,000 people who have crossed into Spain by land or sea without authorisation in the past year, 1,300 did so through Melilla, according to Spain s interior ministry.