Drunk neo-Nazis have clashed with police today, just hours after a mysterious fire destroyed a shelter for asylum-seekers entering Germany.

Calls have been made for decisive action to be taken against vicious right-wing protesters, as a surge of anti-migrant feeling swept the country over the weekend.

Clashes between police and far-right thugs protesting the opening of a new centre for refugees in the town of Heidenau, near Dresden, left 30 police officers needing treatment.

Violence: Drunk neo-Nazis have clashed with police near Dresden, just hours after a mysterious fire destroyed a shelter for asylum-seekers entering Germany

Condemned: Chancellor Angela Merkel has slammed the right-wing anti-refugee violence as 'vile', hours before meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Berlin to establish a unified stance on tackling the crisis

As a result, the mayor of Heidenau Juergen Opitz demanded that Chancellor Angela Merkel visit the scene of the riots, which took place in front of a second shelter intended for asylum-seekers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the ‘vile’ protests against refugees, just hours before meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Berlin to establish a unified stance on efforts to tackle the crisis.

‘The chancellor and the entire government condemn the violent rampages and the aggressively xenophobic atmosphere in the strongest terms,’ said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert.

‘It is vile how right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis try to spread their hollow, hateful messages. Those who act like the aggressors of Heidenau place themselves far outside the law.’

Elsewhere, firefighters tackled flames that engulfed a second shelter last night, which was also intended to house refugees arriving in the country.

No official reason for the blaze, in Weissach im Tal, in Baden-Wuerttemberg state, has yet been established.

Protests: Anti-refugee feeling has swept Germany this weekend, sparking violent confrontations between right-wing thugs and police. Pictured, a woman migrant carries a boy who is crying, as they enter into Macedonia from Greece today

Next step: Macedonia - the chosen route out of Greece into the rest of Europe - decided to try to close its borders, after announcing a state of emergency

Crossing: Children and adults stand alongside the railway tracks in Macedonia on Monday, waiting for a train to take them to Serbia

Europe is buckling under the pressure as tens of thousands of refugees arrive from Middle Eastern and African countries, fleeing war and violence in their home countries.

At least 2,000 more people poured into Serbia overnight from Macedonia, which has declared a state of emergency over the huge numbers of people arriving from across the Greek border.

Germany expects to take in 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, and is struggling to find potential ways to cope with its burgeoning population.

EU border agency Frontex said last week that a record 107,000 migrants were at the bloc’s borders last month, with 20,800 arriving in Greece last week alone.

Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, who travelled to the Macedonia-Greece border, called for an urgent new strategy to deal with the crisis.

‘It’s a humanitarian disaster,’ he said.

‘A disaster for the European Union as a whole, and there is a pressing need for us to focus on the situation in the western Balkans.’

Route: Migrants are travelling from Libya and Turkey, arriving on the Greek islands like Lesbos, before being transported to mainland Greece. Their eventual aim is to get to countries like Germany - but they first need to reach the Schengen area, where borders can be crossed without a passport

Flood of people: Germany expects to welcome 800,000 people throughout 2015, but is struggling to come up with accommodation for its new-arrivals. Pictured, Syrian migrants wait on a dock to board on the Eleftherios Venizelos ferry to be transported to mainland Greece

Dreams: Many of the refugees arriving on Europe's south coast hope to eventually reach countries such as Germany

‘There has to be a new impetus so that what has been decided is implemented,’ a source in the French presidency said, referring to EU decisions taken in June to tackle the crisis.

On immigration, Europe is in danger of displaying the worst of itself: selfishness, haphazard decision-making and rows between member states. Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni

‘The situation is not resolving itself,’ they added, saying that the decisions made by the EU so far ‘are not sufficient, not quick enough and not up to the task’.

Asylum-seekers are making the perilous journey from warzones in the Middle East and Africa, as well as from countries without military conflict in southeastern Europe, including Albania, Serbia and Kosovo.

Calls are mounting for a more unified approach in dealing with the influx of people.

France and Germany are both urging Brussels to compile a list of countries whose nationals would not be considered asylum-seekers except in exceptional personal circumstances.

Meanwhile Ms Merkel is set to travel to Vienna on Thursday, where she will meet with leaders of Balkan states including Albania and Kosovo to find out why ‘so many thousands of people are coming from these countries’, according to Seibert.

France and Germany’s leaders will try to speed up the establishment of reception centres in Greece and Italy, which have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis.

Waiting: These Syrian migrants were queuing to board on the Eleftherios Venizelos ferry on Sunday

Reaction: The Greek government has been sending ships to the islands to pick the refugees up in recent weeks

The centres will help to identify asylum-seekers and illegal migrants.

The French source added: ‘As long as these reception centres are not there and there is no internal solidarity within the EU, the return of migrants – which will dissuade further new arrivals – will not happen.’

The Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned that the deepening crisis could pose a major threat to the ‘soul’ of Europe.