Hundreds hurt as migrants confront Macedonian police

Greece criticizes neighbor's 'excessive' move and those who spread rumors of border openings

Migrants waged running battles with Macedonian police after they were stopped from scaling the border fence with Greece near the border town of Idomeni on Sunday, and aid agencies reported that hundreds of stranded travelers were injured.

Macedonian police used tear gas, stun grenades, plastic bullets and a water cannon to repel the migrants, many of whom responded by throwing rocks over the fence at police. Greek police observed from their side of the frontier but did not intervene.

More than 50,000 migrants have been stranded in Greece after Balkan countries closed their borders to the massive flow of refugees pouring into Europe. Around 11,000 remain camped out at the border with Macedonia, ignoring instructions from the government to move to organized shelters as they still hope to reach Western Europe.

Clashes continued in the afternoon as migrant groups twice tried to overwhelm Macedonian border security. The increasing use of tear gas reached families in their nearby tents in Idomeni's makeshift camp.

The aid agency Doctors Without Borders estimated that their medical volunteers treated about 300 people for various injuries.

Arabic language fliers

Macedonian police said 23 members of the country's security forces were injured.

The clashes began soon after an estimated 500 people gathered at the fence. Many said they were responding to Arabic language fliers distributed on Saturday in the camp urging people to attempt to breach the fence on Sunday morning and "go to Macedonia on foot".

A five-member migrant delegation approached Macedonian police to ask whether the border was about to open. When Macedonian police replied that this wasn't happening, more than 100, including several children, tried to scale the fence.

Greece criticized the Macedonian police response as excessive.

Giorgos Kyritsis, a spokesman for the government's special commission on refugees, said Macedonian forces had deployed an "indiscriminate use of chemicals, plastic bullets and stun grenades against vulnerable people". But he said the blame for Sunday's trouble had to be shared with those in the camp spreading rumors of border openings.

Kyritsis said the Idomeni campers should "not believe the false rumors spread by criminally irresponsible individuals and to cooperate with Greek authorities that guarantee their safe transfer to organized temporary hospitality locations".

Many migrants expressed confusion over the situation, unaware that European Union governments support Macedonia's decision in early March to block the migrant flow from northern Greece. They expressed reluctance to accept Greek offers of better accommodation far away from their often muddy, cold border encampment.

"Europe tells everyone to come, but Macedonia has shut its borders," said Hassan Mohamed, a 19-year-old Kurd from Aleppo, Syria, who has been at the Idomeni camp for two months alongside his mother, sister and brother.

He dismissed the idea of taking Greece's offer of accommodation elsewhere as "too slow".