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Boy hidden inside a suitcase at Spanish border

An X-ray image of an eight-year-old boy hidden in a suitcase. [Photo/IC]

An eight-year-old boy from the Cote d'Ivoire was found curled up in a suitcase as a woman attempted to smuggle him across border controls at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which is located on the north coast of Africa, from Morocco.

Customs officials asked the 19-year-old Moroccan woman, who appeared nervous, to place her suitcase in an x-ray machine, expecting to find drugs or illegal merchandise inside. Instead, the figure of a boy was clearly outlined in the x-ray.

Police said the woman, who was arrested, was not related to the boy and said they believed that the boy's father had paid her to attempt to smuggle the boy into Spain. The child, named Abou, was checked by medics and taken into the care of social services.

Each year thousands of migrants risk their lives to cross into Spain through the northern Africa enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, hoping to find a better life in Europe. More than 16,000 people tried to enter them in 2014 and nearly 5,000 succeeded, compared so some 3,000 in 2013.

The boy gets out of the suitcase. [Photo/IC]