MADRID (AFP) - Spanish police said on Wednesday (Jan 20) they were investigating two young farm workers for animal cruelty after they allegedly killed 72 piglets by jumping on them while the other filmed.

The pair, from the south-eastern town of Huercal Overa, aged 19 and 22, are also accused of sending footage of their acts to people via WhatsApp, the Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.

Police told AFP that one of the workers was Spanish and the other Lithuanian.

The workers killed the piglets by "jumping and letting themselves fall onto them" as they were transferring them from one place to another, it added.

"When the piglets were in the transfer corridor, they closed the entrance and exit, leaving the animals locked up without any means of escape.

"At that moment, while one of them was filming with his mobile phone, the other worker would jump into the corridor... falling with all his weight on the piglets, slaughtering 19 pigs and injuring 53 others which later died of their wounds."

The head of the farm reported the incident to the police after finding out what had happened, the Guardia Civil said.