Refugees Beaten With Truncheons At Border

TV pictures show people being hit with batons by border guards in Macedonia during heavy rain.

At least 7,000 people, including many parents lugging young children, traversed muddy fields as they crossed over from Greece and attempted to get into Serbia.

Sky's Lisa Holland said: "These pictures were taken in Macedonia. We understand these are border police who are, they might say, trying to keep control, to keep order, but you can see that people are being hit by what looks like truncheons as they are being marshalled by the authorities."

Greek border police have said that the movement of people entering Macedonia was the largest single wave of refugees and migrants they had seen so far.

It came as nearly 2,500 migrants and refugees arrived at the Greek port of Piraeus, near Athens, on board the ferry E Venizelos which had sailed from the island of Lesbos.

Greece has been laying on extra ferries after registering 18,000 people on the island in order to allow them to move on.

Meanwhile, Austrian railways has suspended all trains between Hungary and Austria as migrants continue to stream across the border.

The move, which the company said was due to "massive overload", had an instant effect.

Two dozen police in Budapest blocked access to station platforms for more than 400 refugees and migrants holding tickets to Vienna, risking a repeat of scenes last week when Hungarian authorities tried to prevent onward movement.

The Hungarian Parliament is expected to approve legislation authorising the army to help police at the border, where 2,000 soldiers have been working on a 4m (13ft) high fence to stop migrants from walking in from Serbia.

Authorities there said they expected the fence to be finished sooner than expected - in early October.

Ireland said it would accept at least 2,900 more refugees and migrants fleeing to Europe's borders.

The increase takes the total number to about 4,000 with priority given to unaccompanied minors, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said.

The Dutch parliament is to debate an EU request to accept more asylum seekers a day after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he wants a total of 160,000 refugees to be relocated around the EU from Italy, Greece and Denmark - the main transit points for migrants entering and travelling through the bloc.

Britain, Ireland and Denmark are not legally bound by the scheme - and David Cameron has warned that the EU's plan "won't solve the problem".

In the Commons, the Prime Minister said "hard military force" is needed to reduce the number of refugees leaving Syria.

Denmark reopened a motorway and restored some rail services as Danish police said they are no longer stopping migrants intent on crossing to Sweden.

But a Danish ferry company told passengers crossing between Denmark and Germany to carry their passports even though both countries are in the Schengen zone where passports are not required to cross borders under EU rules.

Sweden criticised Denmark's decision to let migrants and refugees travel unopposed through the country to get to Nordic countries.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said all countries should follow EU rules "and that means all countries must register refugees. That's what the Danish government has said before and we assume that all countries follow the rules we have."

The president of Romania joined senior politicians in some other eastern European countries including Poland in saying there was "no way" his country would accept the extra migrants the European Commission has proposed.

Many of the migrants and refugees that have been crossing Europe have been heading to Germany which has set no limit on the number of asylum seekers.