Tear gas fired at Macedonia border

Macedonian police fired tear gas at hundreds of Iraqi and Syrian migrants who tried to break through the country's border fence with Greece yesterday, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

The group of around 300 migrants, including women and children, forced their way past a Greek police cordon onto a rail track and tore down a barbed wire fence into Macedonia.

"Open the borders!" they shouted, some throwing stones at the fence, prompting police to fire volleys of teargas which prevented them from crossing.

At least 30 people requested first aid after the incident, including many children, aid group Doctors of the World said.

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

By yesterday morning, Greek police said more than 7,000 people were massed at the border, in a buildup triggered by Austria and Balkan states capping the numbers of migrants entering their territory.

"Over 7,000 people are at Idomeni, nearly half of them women and children," Vicky Markolefa, a Doctors of the World representative, told AFP. She said the number was four times the capacity of camps set up by aid groups on the border to shelter people waiting to cross.

As the bottleneck showed little sign of easing, German Chancellor Angel Merkel lashed out at a raft of restrictions imposed by Austria and the Balkan states, saying they risked plunging debt-ridden Greece into refugee chaos.

"We can't just abandon this country," she said in an interview late on Sunday, pointing the finger at Austria, whose introduction of restrictions on February 19 triggered a domino effect.

"When one insists on his border, the other suffers. That's not my Europe."

The spate of border closures was sparked by Austria's announcement it would accept no more than 80 asylum claims per day and cap the numbers of those seeking to cross its territory, in a move Merkel said was responsible for the current buildup.