Refugees use 'battering-ram' to break through Macedonian border

Refugees broke through the border fence between Macedonia and Greece on Monday using a home-made battering ram, video reports show.

Macedonian police fired tear gas at around 300 refugees, including Iraqi and Syrian asylum seekers, who attempted to break through the border fence, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Those trying to break through the border chanted “Open the border!” as they forced their way past a Greek police cordon onto a rail track and tried to break through a barbed wire fence into Macedonia.

Police fired tear gas at those forcing their way in, stopping them from advancing across the border.

The protest took place several hours after Macedonia allowed some 300 Syrians and Iraqis to cross before resealing the frontier, keeping thousands of others out. 

At least 30 people, many of them children, requested first aid in the stampede that ensued, the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. Macedonian officials said one of its policemen had been hurt and required hospitalisation.

By Monday evening, officials said at least 7,000 people were massed at the border, in a build-up triggered by Austrian and Balkan states capping the numbers of migrants and refugees entering their territory.