Record Numbers Cross Med Into Europe

A record 432,761 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2015 - more than double the total of last year.

The International Organisation for Migration estimated that 309,356 people had arrived by sea in Greece as of 10 September, with another 121,139 arriving in Italy, 2,166 in Spain and 100 in Malta.

Some 2,748 have drowned so far this year, the group says.

It comes as Hungary's prime minister warned migrants that if they cross the border illegally from next week they will be arrested.

Viktor Orban said migrants had rebelled against the country's laws and had failed to co-operate with authorities in recent days.

Thousands of refugees have been entering Hungary from its southern neighbour Serbia as they try to make their way towards western European countries, including Germany.

Earlier on Friday, Austria closed part of the A4 motorway near the Hungarian border for security reasons as scores of migrants tried to reach Vienna on foot.

Reporters estimated 1,000 people pushed through police cordons to make the 40-mile trip on foot on Friday as Austria's railway company, OeBB, stopped its service from and to Hungary due to overcrowding.

Services will remain suspended through the weekend, the company said in a statement.

"This decision to stop traffic to and from Hungary made it possible to stabilise the situation in Vienna's large train stations. This is important to keep train services running," OeBB said.

The march petered out a few hours later when police and emergency crews persuaded migrants there would eventually be enough buses to take them to Vienna.

Packed trains have been taking thousands of migrants and refugees from the Hungarian border to Vienna for days with most heading on to Germany and other West European countries.

Some 8,000 people crossed the border into Austria on Thursday and 3,600 had already made their way across since midnight.

Police spokesman Gerhard Koller said 1,500 people had spent the night outdoors.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said the migration crisis is "probably the biggest challenge for the European Union in its history".

Despite the warning, four central European nations are refusing to support an EU plan for mandatory refugee quotas: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Hungarian police have launched an investigation into a video showing police in surgical masks throwing out packs of sandwiches to migrants clamouring for food at a reception centre in Roszke on Hungary's southern border with Serbia.

Spritzendorfer-Ehrenhauser, who was visiting the camp with the Hungarian Red Cross, took the footage at dinner time.

"There were maybe 100 people trying to catch these plastic bags with sausages ... They were not able to organise a camp and treat them like human beings."

A government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the footage showed policemen "trying to maintain order among those who are unable to line up for food".