Police fire stun grenades as thousands of migrants charge at border crossing

Special police forces fired stun grenades to disperse thousands of migrants stuck on a no-man’s land between Macedonia and Greece. Officers opened fire after the crowd of 3,000 migrants, who spent night out in the open, made several attempts to charge the Macedonian police, who have closed the border. At least four people were injured in the melee early on Friday. Police backed by armored vehicles also spread coils of razor wire over rail tracks used by migrants to cross on foot from Greece to Macedonia. It came a day after Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its borders to deal with a massive influx of refugees, mostly from the war in Syria, heading north to Europe.

We want to go to Germany to find a new life because everything has been destroyed in Syria. The policemen let us on the train only because they felt sorry for the baby.

Syrian refugee Amina Asmani

Macedonia has become is a major transit route for refugees heading through Greece to more prosperous European Union countries. There have been chaotic scenes at the Gevgelija railway station where thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia are trying to board trains heading to the border with Serbia, from where they try to slip into Hungary and the European Union. Some 2,000 migrants converge on the station daily, up from 1,000 only weeks ago. Tempers flare at the ticket booths and in lines for temporary refugee papers on the garbage-filled platforms while others push and shove over a single water tap or electric sockets to charge mobile phones. "People are very nervous because they have been waiting here for many hours,“ said Najip Zazal from Afghanistan. "It’s scorching sun and there are no facilities here even for children or sick people. We have been walking the whole night to get here.”

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