The Moroccan migrant was found hidden in a sack of poisonous ash by Spanish border guards

This is the shocking moment when a Moroccan migrant was found hidden in a sack of poisonous ash by Spanish border guards.

Officers in the North African Spanish enclave of Melilla spotted the man on Friday as the sacks were waiting to be shipped to the mainland.

Border guards initially thought the man was dead because the ashes were poisonous, but soon discovered he was alive after beating them.

The footage shows a Civil Guard officer discovering the man’s leg in a sack before lifting the limp limb while telling a nearby colleague he was dead.

The guard can be heard calling for a knife to cut open the sack while repeating that it is not moving.

But after the bag was opened, the man came to life and quickly became aggressive towards the border guards.

The man can be seen hitting the metal container in which the sacks were kept with his fist before claiming to officers in broken Spanish that he fell asleep.

The Spanish Civil Guard said an ambulance had been called for the man who would likely have died within hours if he had not been found.

The sack he was hiding in contained fly ash, fine particles that are produced when coal is burned in power plants.

The ashes were exported to mainland Spain, where they are commonly used for concrete, cement and road repairs.

A Civil Guard spokesman said, “The man was found in a hermetically sealed plastic bag that contained burned fly ash, which is a toxic material.

Officials initially thought the man was dead after discovering his leg hanging out of the sack, but found that he was alive shortly after the bag was cut open when he hit her

The officer who carried out the rescue first observed a person’s apparently lifeless leg, which left him severely emotionally impaired and resulted in him calling for an ambulance who thought he was dead.

“Fortunately, he was alive and his life was saved after the bag was fully opened.”

A well-placed source added: “This man was almost certainly already in Melilla and would have helped get into the sack outside the port while trying to reach mainland Spain, knowing he would be taken to port and this was his chance to get out of the enclave.

“If he’d been inside much longer, he would most likely have died.

“He received medical attention but is fine now.

“The police think he’s Moroccan.”

In September 2019, three Moroccan youths were discovered trying to smuggle their way into Spain after hiding on a passenger ferry to the Costa del Sol.

The stowaways were filmed as the trans-Mediterranean ferry drove to Malaga after a seven-hour journey from the North African Spanish enclave of Melilla.

Disembarkation was suspended and the police, including specialist divers, mobilized in the event that young people aged 16-18 should jump or fall into the sea.

They were detained on board the ferry, Ciudad Autonoma Melilla, and taken to a police station for identification.

The man was found in the sack in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, before being shipped to the mainland

The footage showed the police surrounding the gangway on dry land as the migrants sat precariously on their structure high in the air.

The ferry they hid on had space for 1,000 passengers and 330 cars.

Two years earlier, three Moroccans and two Algerians were discovered hiding on the engines of a high-speed ferry that covered the same route between Melilla and Malaga.

One of the men was found to be a minor who had fled a children’s center in Melilla days earlier.

Police in Melilla said 41 people were trying to reach mainland Spain when stowaways were found in hiding, including trucks and containers that would land on ships leaving the North African enclave on Friday alone.

They said four were found in containers with broken glass for recycling prior to a “dangerous” seven-hour sea voyage.

Melilla is one of the two North African enclaves in Spain. The other is Ceuta.

Incineration in municipal waste incineration plants produces millions of tons of fly ash around the world.

After a stabilization process, it is usually sent to landfill or stored in hazardous waste landfills.