Macedonian police clash with migrants trying to cross border into Greece

Macedonian police clashed with Middle Eastern refugees Friday to stop them from crossing the border to Greece, local media reported.

Police in riot gear were securing a fence erected along the border overnight across a railway near Gevgelija, 120 kilometers south of Skopje, facing off migrants on the other side, A1 TV reported.

Several hundred refugees reportedly managed to enter Macedonia amid the turmoil. Others laid on the railway tracks in protest at the blockade, the vesti.mk news portal said.

Macedonia closed the border for refugees a day earlier and declared a crisis situation in the border zone, calling upon the military to curb the inflow of migrants.

Military patrols were deployed overnight, the Plus Info website said.

Thousands of people have since been stranded without facilities in the no-man's land between Greece and Macedonia at the Gevgelija border crossing.

Gevgelija straddles the main route for migrants who land in Greece and has been particularly hard-hit. The vast majority of those trying to cross the border are Syrians, along with many people from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Virtually all of the tens of thousands who were registered this year sought to reach Germany and other wealthy EU nations and were only transiting through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.