An X-ray image showing an 8-year-old sub-Saharan boy hidden in a suitcase. on May 8, 2015. The suitcase was carried by a young woman of 19, which was controlled around noon on May 7, 2105 when she was entering in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in the north of Morocco.
Spanish Guardia Civil/AFP/Getty ImagesAn X-ray image showing an 8-year-old sub-Saharan boy hidden in a suitcase on May 8, 2015, in Ceuta the Spanish enclave north of Morocco.

A woman was attempting to get him across the border

Authorities found an 8-year-old boy being smuggled in a suitcase into the Spanish territory of Ceuta by a woman Thursday. The boy was from the Ivory Coast.

Police saw the boy while putting the luggage through an X-ray scanner, they told Agence France-Presse. When they opened the bag, they found the young boy in a "terrible state."

According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the 19-year-old woman carrying the suitcase was not related to the boy but had been paid by his father to smuggle him in. The father lives in the Canary Islands and tried to cross the border just a few hours later.

Thousands of African migrants attempt to enter the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla every year.