One look at this Salvamento Marítimo photo of the crowded zodiac dinghy and you can see it was on the point of sinking when help arrived.

The Salvamento Marítimo patrol aircraft, SASMAR 101 located the 4-metre long dinghy one hour before nightfall and jettisoned a life raft. When intercepted by the rescue boat, Salvamar Hamal, only minutes later, the craft was still 70 nautical miles from the Costa Granadina.

Since midday that same afternoon Salvamento Marítimo had been out looking for the dingy after receiving a tip off from Morocco earlier that morning.

Amongst the passengers, all from sub-Saharan region, were three young children and six women, four of whom are pregnant.

Special precautions are being taken by the rescue crews and sanitary volunteers over the threat of Ebola. Indeed, there is concern that illegal immigration from North Africa could bring the disease closer to Spain should it spread northwards from sub-Saharan Africa.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)