MADRID, Aug 2 (Bernama-dpa) -- Further bodies have been recovered from the sea off Ceuta following the influx of tens of thousands of migrants into the Spanish exclave in North Africa, bringing the total death toll to 72, a Spanish government official said on Sunday, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, the Spanish Interior Ministry's representative in Ceuta, told journalists that the latest recoveries had raised the official death toll from 67.
Emergency services are continuing to search the sea for more bodies.
Spanish state broadcaster RTVE reported on Friday, citing the authorities, that most of the victims drowned while attempting to swim from Morocco to the exclave.
Photos and TV footage showed numerous swimming rings and car tyres which people had used in their attempts to reach Ceuta from the Moroccan coastal town of Fnideq. Others had climbed over the border fence.
Official estimates suggest that a total of 50,000 to 60,000 people entered the exclave irregularly this week, mainly on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Spanish government says almost all of them have since returned to Morocco.
RTVE reported that several hundred new arrivals remained in Ceuta over the weekend.
-- BERNAMA-dpa