Thousands of additional people seeking asylum in Western Europe have pushed through police lines at Austria’s main border crossing with Hungary and set off on foot on the highway towards Vienna.
They began their march after rail traffic was sharply reduced due to overcrowding, despite moves by authorities to compensate for that at the Nickelsdorf crossing, the Associated Press news agency reported.
As stated by Police spokesman, Helmut Marban, there was “some kind of group dynamic” that started with a few people beginning to walk towards Vienna and quickly developed into a large movement of people.
Regularly scheduled trains from Nickelsdorf continued to other Austrian destinations, including Vienna, with three departures scheduled. But the railway company announced an end to special shuttles between Nickelsdorf and Vienna that had been running for days. Buses and taxis were called to Nickelsdorf to take refugees to the Austrian capital.
Refugees also continued to enter from Serbia to Hungary, the last stop before reaching Western Europe, on Friday, walking along railway tracks.
Families with little children were sitting on the ground at Hungary’s Roszke crossing, sharing food donations and taking care of their youngest family members while taking a rest during their march.
At a station in Roszke, where refugees are temporarily held, the wife of an Austrian politician has filmed the chaos as police threw food to refugees, saying that they were being treated like “animals.”