Slovenia has also gone on the offensive, returning migrants who have arrived from Croatia back to its neighbour and stopping all rail links between the countries. The refugees have started taking the Croatian border after Hungary sealed off its southern border with Serbia on Tuesday.
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Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he believed the police reaction was justified and the criticisms unfounded because the migrants, he said, were throwing stones and concrete at officers.
Hungary’s decision to close its borders to Syrian refugees has intensified the growing crisis enveloping Europe.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Feymann is scheduled to visit Zagreb and Ljubljana later on Thursday.
Graphic pictures have shown the aftermath of tear gas and water cannon used on people at the Hungarian border on Wednesday.
“I accompanied one group of several dozen people along this way”, says Delauney.
Mr Assad accused Europe of supporting “terrorism” and providing “protection for terrorists, calling them moderates”. “We have a moral duty to offer them protection”.
Hungary, in contrast, has been insisting that most of the people who have entered are economic migrants seeking better jobs.
Serbia has condemned the actions of the Hungarian police and said it would lodge an official protest.
The head of Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees resigned for personal reasons after being criticised for being slow in processing applications from a record number of asylum seeks.
Overnight, Hungarian authorities positioned barbed wire and a new gate at the border where the clashes occurred, which was at one of two border crossings near the Serbian village of Horgos.
Croatian officials say over 8,900 migrants have reached Croatia in the last two days after Hungary shut down its border. Around 100 people crossed into Slovenia from Croatia and were being held at a makeshift processing center in the border town of Berizce.
Pressure is building for a special EU summit to come up with solutions to the crisis, with the bloc bitterly split and free movement across borders – a pillar of the European project – in grave jeopardy.
“The first thing they ask is where is the train to Slovenia and Germany“, Yurisha said. “But, go on. Not because we don’t like you but because this is not your final destination”. The situation calmed down, but some migrants moved off on foot, with police unable to stop them.
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Early on things were calm, but they soon got out of control. The operation took place at a large camp near the Gare d’Austerlitz train station in south-eastern Paris, and another in the north of the city.
