Several posts on Meta's platforms since July 7, including one with over 28,000 likes, falsely claimed that Spain's existing programme to regularise hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants would end on July 30.

Some videos have racked up millions of views and thousands of comments in what has become a first-of-its-kind social media trend with dire consequences.

Spanish police and troops patrolled the streets of Ceuta as the enclave largely returned to normal after the sudden mass influx of migrants.