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File image of a jet skier
The Algerian coast guard has reportedly shot dead two tourists vacationing in Morocco who strayed into Algerian waters on their jet skis.
They were among four French-Moroccan dual nationals who set off from the Moroccan resort of Saidia on a jet ski.
A third member of the group was arrested by the coast guard, which patrols the closed border between the two countries.
The shooting sparked outrage in Morocco after a fisherman posted a video of a lifeless body floating in the sea.
The border between Algeria and Morocco was closed in 1994, and Algiers severed ties two years ago. She accused Morocco of hostile acts – an accusation rejected by Rabat.
Mohamed Kissi was the only one of the group of four who made it back to Morocco, reports the AFP news agency, citing Moroccan media. He said the group was lost and out of fuel.
“We got lost but kept going until we found ourselves in Algeria,” said Mr Kissi, whose brother Bilal was killed.
“We knew we were in Algeria because a black Algerian dinghy came towards us” and the people on board “shot at us,” he said.
“Thank God I wasn’t hit, but they killed my brother and my friend,” he added.
“They arrested my other friend. Five bullets hit my brother and my friend. My other friend was hit by a bullet.”
He was eventually picked up by the Moroccan navy and brought back to Saidia, he added.
The second man killed was Abdelali Merchouer.
The man arrested by the Algerian coast guard, named Smail Snabe, reportedly appeared before a prosecutor on Wednesday, but no details were given.
A Moroccan government spokesman declined to comment on the shooting, telling AFP it was “a matter of justice.”
There was no immediate comment from Algeria.
The two nations have a long history of tensions as they continue to dispute over Western Sahara.
They share a border of almost 2,000 km (1,242 miles) long, which has been a source of tension since independence from French colonial rule.
It was closed in 1994 for security reasons after Islamist militants bombed a hotel in the historic Moroccan city of Marrakesh.