WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Friday migrants who throw stones at members of the U.S. military at the border will be arrested, not shot as he suggested during an address the previous day.

Trump told reporters on the South Lawn that he hoped soldiers along the southern border wouldn't have to fire their guns on the caravan of migrants fleeing danger in Central America and heading toward the U.S. in hopes of claiming asylum.

The president pointed again to reports of a clash between authorities and the caravan as they moved across the Guatemalan border to Mexico.

Mexico authorities said migrants attacked its agents with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks when they broke through a gate on the Mexican end but were pushed back, according to the Associated Press. It's unclear whether any Mexican authorities were injured but Guatemalan officers were hurt.

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Trump said what happened to Mexican authorities was "disgraceful."

"They hit them with rocks and some were very seriously injured and they were throwing rocks in their face," the president said. "If they do that with us, they're gonna be arrested."

Trump said he hoped "they won't have to fire" and disputed how his comments Thursday, where he suggested immigrant could be shot if stones are thrown, were perceived by the public.

"I didn't say shoot," Trump said. "I didn't say shoot. But if they do that with us they're gonna be arrested for a long time."

The comments differed from those the president made during an announcement from the White House Thursday afternoon. During the address, Trump announced his administration would be rolling out changes to the nation's asylum program and took on the caravan.

The president on Thursday suggested migrants could be shot if they threw rocks or stones at members of the military, explaining any stone will be considered a "firearm because there's not much difference when you get hit in the face with a rock."

Trump said soldiers wouldn't accept bottles or stones being thrown at them.

"They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back," the president told reporters. "I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police I say consider it a rifle."