A Spanish police patrol sliced through a speedboat believed to be carrying migrants trying to reach Spanish territory in North Africa.

Footage shows the Guardia Civil chasing the speedboat and trying to block the path when it severs it in half.

The speedboat’s four passengers were flung into the water but quickly rescued. One required brief hospital treatment in the Moroccan city of Nador, while the other three were unhurt.

The incident took place on Sunday off Melilla, a Spanish territory in North Africa, whose local authorities say the Civil Guard had proceeded normally to stop the migrants reaching the coast.

Moroccan authorities said they were investigating the collision, but Spain’s interior ministry said it would not.

Aina Vidal, the parliamentary spokeswoman for Sumar, the junior partner in Spain’s Left-wing coalition government, called the collision an “intolerable human disaster”.

Sumar and other parties called for an official explanation from Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

Authorities in Morocco have said the vast majority of attempts to smuggle migrants by boat into Melilla and Ceuta, Spain’s other North African territory, involve traffickers based in the Spanish cities.

Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the only land borders of the European Union with Africa. The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.