More than 100 migrants detained after attempting to break into Ceuta during second wave

Another two Moroccan citizens were arrested in the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq.

The initial crossing last month saw more than 72,000 illegal immigrants storm the border on July 30 in what was dubbed the single largest illegal influx into the European Union.

At least 88 of those making the first crossing died, either from drowning or being crushed in the chaos engulfing the exclave.

Yesterday, police donning riot gear deployed tear gas to disperse the groups sitting atop hills around 3km from the Spanish border.

Spanish media revealed that journalists in Fnideq were instructed to leave the city "immediately" by Morocco's interior ministry, giving no reason as to why.

"We’ll continue to deploy whatever personnel are necessary to restore normality as soon as possible and prevent events like those of 30 July from happening again,” Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said on Thursday.

Hundreds of migrants have been prevented from breaching the border into Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta

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In shared footage, groups of officers could be seen escorting migrants from the area on top of the hills.

Over in the city of Ceuta, Spanish troops were stationed outside supermarkets while police forces roamed the streets in a bid to stop a repeat of the mass crossing.

Some 5,000 migrants have remained in the Spanish exclave since flooding the border in July.

However, the number of those who have actually stayed in the region and were not returned is debated across EU member states.

The same incident triggered a fiery spat between Spain and Italy, as Giorgia Meloni raised concerns over border security.

On July 31, the Italian Prime Minister threatened to suspend the Schengen Zone with Italy, ending free movement between the two countries.

"The images coming from Ceuta are striking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a concrete threat to the security of Europe's borders," she said.

Moroccan authorities have stayed on high alert as they monitored social media posts goading on individuals to carry out a second mass crossing yesterday.

Officials warned they would prosecute the organisers and participants of such a campaign.

Since the first storming of the borders, the Spanish military as well as extra police forces were pulled in to protect the area from illegal arrivals.

In Ceuta, there are now more than 1,600 officers to protect the Spanish city with a population of 80,000.

In the days following the mass crossing on July 30, the majority of illegal arrivals were returned to Morocco.