Knife-wielding man remanded in custody after Morocco border incident

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July 26, 2017 6:24 PM

A man who threatened border agents in the Spanish territory of Melilla with a knife while shouting "Allahu Akbar" was remanded in custody without bail, a court said Wednesday.

Spanish police apprehend a man armed with a knife at a border crossing between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Melilla on July 25, 2017

A man who threatened border agents in the Spanish territory of Melilla with a knife while shouting

Security camera footage of Tuesday's incident -- which authorities say was not a terror attack -- showed the man in a blue top walking slowly through a border post between Melilla and Morocco holding a knife, police closing in on him.

One of the officers hurled a portable road barricade at him, throwing him to the ground as other agents pounced to remove the knife.

A court in Melilla, a Spanish territory on Morocco's northern coast, remanded him in custody pending further investigation.

According to a statement, he is being probed "for disobedience, threats and disturbances."

Spain, the world's third largest tourism destination, has so far been spared the kind of extremist violence that has occurred in nearby France, Belgium and Germany.

But it was hit by what is still Europe's deadliest jihadist attack in March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda-inspired extremists.

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