The shooting sparked anger in Morocco after a fisherman posted footage of a lifeless body floating in the sea.

Mohamed Kissi was the only one of the group of four to make it back to Morocco, AFP news agency reports, quoting Moroccan media.

Mr Kissi denied the group had tried to escape when they were discovered by the coastguard, telling local media that his brother had tried talking to officials before he was shot.

The man arrested by the Algerian coastguard, named as Smail Snabe, reportedly appeared before a prosecutor on Wednesday but no details were given.

The two nations share a border nearly 2,000km (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.

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