ZCZC
BFF-41
SPAIN-POLICE-ATTACK
Shots fired at mosque in Spain’s Ceuta
MADRID, June 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Two masked gunmen on a motorbike fired
shots on Monday at a mosque in the Spanish territory of Ceuta on the northern
coast of Africa, local officials said.
No one was injured in the attack which happened in the early hours of
Monday, a spokesman for the Spanish central government’s representative in
Ceuta said.
“Three bullets struck a mosque early this morning,” he told AFP, adding
police were looking for two masked gunmen on a motorcycle.
A handful of worshippers were inside the Muley el Mehdi mosque, one of the
most important in the tiny territory, at the time of the shooting, according
to local media.
Ceuta and another Spanish enclave, Melilla, sit on Morocco’s Mediterranean
coast, and are each surrounded on three sides by Morocco.
They both have a significant Muslim population. Around 37,000 of Ceuta’s
85,000 residents are Muslim, according to the Union of Islamic communities of
Spain.
BSS/AFP/ARS/2005 hrs