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More than 20 police officers were injured during clashes with migrants

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14 policemen and 9 members of the Army, were injured in today’s clash between the police and migrants at the Macedonian-Greek border, said the Ministry of Interior.
The statement from the Interior Ministry reported that during the clash three vehicles were damaged from the MOI and five from the Army.
According to initial estimates from the MOI more than 3,000 migrants took part in the riot, and during the whole event, Greek police officers did not intervene to prevent the rioting on the border line.
The Ministry also stated that they had previously received information that the migrants would attempt to forcibly enter the territory of Macedonia, measures were taken for tighter security on the border with Greece. The measures taken included an increased presence of law enforcement officers, the Army and foreign police officers from Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria were deployed on the territory of Macedonia.

“At 9:30 am at the border at quota 59 representatives from the Greek police asked to have a meeting between representatives from the migrants and representatives from our border services. The purpose of the meeting was to convince the migrants and for them to see for themselves that the rumors that the border is open was incorrect, and that they should give up the idea of ​​entering Macedonia. At 10:15 am representatives from the migrants came, Greek police officers and news crews also arrived. Migrants were interested why the border was closed and when it would reopen. A representative from the Interior Ministry, responded to questions from the migrants, and at 10:35 am they left and retreated to the Greek camp. At 10:50 am a larger group of migrants, between 1,000 and 2,000 people, started violent protests around 100-200 meters right from the border quota 59, first there was shouting, then they began throwing stones and various objects. Officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Army immediately began to stop the migrants, they also used chemicals – tear gas. After half an hour they had breached the protective barrier and a group of 20 to 30 migrants tried to illegally enter the territory of Macedonia, but they were immediately stopped and returned to the territory of Greece. Another group of migrants, from 500-1000 people tried to break the fence and began to throw stones at our security forces. In 14:00 most of the migrants retreated to about 50-100 meters into Greek territory and the situation was partly brought under control, at that time water cannons were already in function “, said the statement from the Interior Ministry.

The statement adds that about at 15:00 border security was raised to the highest level after information came through that migrants were preparing Molotov cocktails, however, the situation never came to that.

The migrants threw stones at the Macedonian security forces, and this lasted until 18:00.

The humanitarian organization “Doctors Without Borders” said that in today’s riots around 260 migrants were injured and additional teams were sent to help at the refugee camp at Idomeni.

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