“No more trains will run from Austria to Germany”, the spokeswoman said.
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The main goal for now is to ensure that interior passages in the station remain open including access to platforms and that trains are boarded in an orderly and safe manner they said.
He contrasted that treatment with firm but friendly German police keeping migrants separate from other travellers with a thin strip of red-and-white tape: “Very nice”, he said, and fellow refugees nodded.
According to German newspaper “Passauer Neue Presse”, the German Government also stopped the train to and from Austria.
“Today, up until now, we have taken in 2,700 refugees, mainly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis”.
Around 1,200 migrants slept overnight at Salzburg station on camp beds set up in the car park.
A spokesman for the city of Salzburg, Johannes Greifeneder, said Germany would have “a much bigger problem” monitoring and registering refugees arriving by foot instead of by train.
The minister criticised leaders across Europe for a “lack of action” on the crisis.
Germany, the intended destination of most migrants, moved earlier to introduce border checks as it struggled to cope with the influx. This is an ongoing battle, which will only grow more heated as the number of migrants entering Germany for 2015 climbs to 800,000-plus, an estimate made by officials, according to the AP.
The Bavarian alpine town of Freilassing has become the new focal point of refugee influx in recent days, with thousands of asylum seekers trying to reach there from the neighboring Austrian city of Salzburg.
“Now the refugees have understood that no trains are running, and they are setting off on foot”. The rush from Hungary has slowed dramatically since Tuesday, when the Hungarian authorities fenced off their border with Serbia.
The AP also quoted De Maiziere’s Sunday statement to reporters, and the interior minister said border controls were crucial for “security reasons”. Police said the situation had calmed somewhat.
The decision means that Germany has effectively exited temporarily from the Schengen system.
“If these border controls go on for several weeks, or even longer, the sector would have to discuss a possible adjustment in prices with their clients”, it added.
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Meanwhile, the flow of migrants into Hungary hit another record on September 12 after a total of 4,330 migrants walked across the border with Serbia.
