Clashes as massed police ranks block migrants at Hungary train station

Hungary has closed a main station in Budapest to migrants after hundreds of people boarded trains for Austria and Germany on Monday. Migrants were told to leave the Eastern Railway Terminus and police are lined up at the main entrance, national news agency MTI reported. An announcement over the station’s loudspeakers said the measure would be in effect for an undetermined length of time. A huge crowd has gathered outside the station, some of whom have been shouting “Germany, Germany”.

They took 125 euros for each ticket to Munich or Berlin, then they stopped and forced us from station.

Hassan, a 47-year-old Syrian

Scuffles broke out earlier as migrants pushed toward metal gates at a platform where a train was scheduled to leave for Vienna and Munich, and were blocked by police. Scores of refugees claim to have spent hundreds of euro on train tickets only to be barred from travelling. Hungary is the gateway to the EU for migrants crossing by land from nations including Syria and Afghanistan, across Macedonia and Serbia. Army engineers have begun building a 4m-high fence along the border with non-EU member Serbia in an attempt to control the problem.

Politics Budapest