Hungary has sent armoured vehicles to its border with Croatia, as tensions mount between the neighbouring countries over the migrant crisis.

A convoy of tanks and armoured personnel carriers, transporting several hundred soldiers, made its way towards Hungary’s southern border.

Locals flocked into the streets to cheer on the military convoy as it made its journey to the frontier.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ordered the advance of military operations, as Croatia continued to send bus-loads of migrants and refugees to its borders.

Although they didn't stop at any border towns, the tanks patrolled the border in a show of force in response to the weekend's bitter disputes.

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Sending in the army: A military convoy is seen on a main road near Nagykanizsa, Hungary, close to the Hungarian-Croatian border today

Border control: Hungarian army members take security measures at Hungarian-Croatian border as thousands of refugees arrived from Croatia today

Tensions mount: The Hungarian army marches at the Hungarian-Croatian border, as the country strengthens its border security against the wave of asylum-seekers and migrants

At an immigration point linking the northeastern Croatian town of Baranjsko Petrovo Selo with Beremend in Hungary, 11 buses transported around 600 migrants towards the frontier between the two countries last night.

One bus after another would stop just metres from the border, allowing passengers to disembark before progressing on foot into Hungary.

Those who arrived at the Hungarian border were met with tear gas and water cannon on Tuesday.

What we see today is a complete failure of the Croatian state to handle migration issues. Hungarian government’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs

In response, Croatia announced that it would offer asylum-seekers a clear route onto European soil, but soon found itself buckling under the pressure.

Croatia said some of its border crossings still remain open but that it had been forced to close others because of the sheer volume of migrants.

It said the weight of numbers - particularly since Hungary sealed its border with Serbia - meant its only option was to allow the migrants to pass through, and called for a unified EU response.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said his country could take no more and would give them food, water and medical attention, before sending them on their often perilous journey to western and northern Europe.

Some 3,000 entered Hungary by bus and train on Friday, leading officials to accuse Croatia of committing 'a major violation of international law'.

More were expected today, as dozens of buses on the Hungarian side of the border lined up in the village of Beremend.

Braced: Tensions are mounting between Hungary and Croatia, after they have failed to come to an agreement over what to do with the tens of thousands of new-arrivals

Accusations: But Austria has claimed that it is receiving migrants that have been shipped through by Hungary and Croatia without being registered, in violation of EU rules

Controls: Hungary announced the construction of a new fence along a 25mile stretch of its border with Croatia (shown in yellow), just days after erecting a barrier along its frontier with Serbia (shown in red). By constructing the fence along the border with Serbia, Hungary channelled thousands of refugees and migrants into Croatia

Desperate: Migrants rush to board a train in the eastern-Croatia town of Tovarnik, close to the border between Croatia and Serbia

Crush: A stampede occurs in Croatia as Middle Eastern refugees rush to find space on a train headed to the northeastern town of Beli Manastir

It is believed some of the military reservists called in will be asked to patrol Hungary's southern border fence with Serbia as the country's army is stretched to its limit.

'We forced them, by sending people up there. And we'll keep doing it,' Croatia’s Prime Minister Milanovic told reporters in the northeastern town of Beli Manastir, from where many of the buses and several trains left on Friday for the short trip to Hungary.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto branded Mr Milanovic ‘pathetic’, saying: ‘Instead of honestly making provision for the immigrants, it sent them straight to Hungary.

‘What kind of European solidarity is this?’

He said Hungary would speed up building the fence 'where necessary' along its Croatian border.

Hungary has warned it might block Croatia's access to Europe's Schengen zone of passport-free travel.

Hungary has said that it will enforce the same tough laws at the border with Croatia as those currently in place at the country’s Serbian border – where crossing the border is a criminal offence.

The Hungarian government’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs added that it was clear the Croatian system for handling migrants and refugees had ‘collapsed’.

'What we see today is a complete failure of the Croatian state to handle migration issues,' he said.

Frantic: Refugees struggle to get on a train from Gyor to Hegyeshalom in Hungary today, during the night they were transported from the Croatian border in buses organised by the Hungarian authorities

Panic: A refugee hurls himself head first through a train window, as crowds of people crush through the doors

Closed off: Fences and border controls are severely limiting the movement of refugees in Europe. Hungary's border with Serbia is already completely closed and fences are already under construction along its borders with Croatia and Romania. Refugees already in Hungary will find their routes out of the country limited thanks to border controls with Slovakia and Austria. Many of the refugees currently stuck in Serbia are now expected to head to Slovenia via Croatia, but even there they face strict border controls. Those who make it into Slovenia face further border controls if they try to reach Austria of Hungary but the Slovenia-Italy border remains open, for the time being at least

'What is more, we see intentional participation in human smuggling, taking these migrants to the Hungarian border.'

Hungary closed its border with Serbia after some 50,000 refugees and migrants crossed through the frontier in just one week.

But it faced international criticism for using what many branded as an inappropriate level of aggression in keeping refugees away from its borders.

Meanwhile at the Croatian border, refugees turned on each other as frustrations at the migration crisis boiled over.

More than 100 men clashed on the Croat-Hungarian border after Syrians fleeing the country's civil war accused migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan of exploiting their misery.

They threw stones and fought in the Croatian town of Beli Manastir before police officers stormed in with batons.

Elsewhere, more than 2,000 people were taken west to Croatia's border with Slovenia where riot police pepper-sprayed a group of 150 migrants in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In the tiny border town of Tovarnik migrants claimed that police officers told them that for £20 they would be taken 200 miles west to the capital Zagreb so they could catch trains to more prosperous northern European nations.

Crowds: Migrants rush to board a train in the eastern-Croatia town of Tovarnik, close to the border between Croatia and Serbia

Rush: Middle Eastern refugees rush to find space on a train headed to Beli Manastir from Tovarnik, in Croatia

Route: Tensions are mounting between Hungary, Croatia and Austria, as the countries fail to agree over what should be done with the tens of thousands of migrants and refugees arriving. Croatia has shipped busloads of people to Hungary, which has in turn taken them straight to Austria. Reports claim that many arriving in Austria have not been registered by either Hungary or Croatia

Instead, the coaches were escorted by police to a border crossing with Hungary, which reluctantly agreed to put them on buses to Austria.

Dozens of migrants in Baranjsko Petrovo Selo on Friday night showed their printed bus tickets which clearly stated Zagreb as their destination.

'Why are we crossing into Hungary where they beat us?' demanded Ahmed Laham, 18, who was fleeing war-torn Aleppo in Syria, with his brother and sister.

'They charged us €25 each to get to Zagreb. Now we are at Hungary. What is going on?'

Lwae Maajid, 35, from the Iraqi city of Ramadi, stepped off one of the buses with his wife and four young children and said: 'We want to get to Germany where I can get work and start a new life.'

The overwhelming majority of those at the border claimed to be from Syria, including Mr Maajid.

Another group of migrants, who minutes earlier told this newspaper they were from Pakistan and wanted to come to Britain, then claimed they were Syrian when challenged by police.

As tension between Croatia and Hungary heightens, Austria also saw the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants and refugees today.

The busloads of people were initially sent into Hungary by Croatia, but Hungary then shipped them on to Austria.

Crowded: Refugees wait for a train from Gyor to Hegyeshalom in Hungary today, filling train station platforms

Desperate: Migrants crush the Austrian side of the border between Hungary and Austria, near Heiligenkreuz, today

Punch ups: Migrants scuffle as they queue up for buses after they arrived at the border between Austria and Hungary near Heiligenkreuz, about 180 kms (110 miles) south of Vienna, Austria

Eruptions of violence: Frustrations boiled over at the Austria-Hungary border today, as crowds crushed for a bus

But even those who have reached Austria claim that they have not been registered by either Croatia or Hungary, in violation of EU rules, reported the BBC.

Others added that they were simply driven in buses across across Hungary and told to walk over a railway line into Austria.

Austrian police said on Saturday that around 9,000 people had crossed the border from Hungary since midnight.

Around 5,000 of these arrived at Heiligenkreuz, near the city of Graz, and a further 4,000 at Nickelsdorf near Vienna.

A further 1,000 new-arrivals are expected before the end of the day.

Another 40,000 are expected to arrive in Europe over the next two days.

The Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner struck out at neighbouring countries, accusing them of failing to follow EU rules.

Austria is under additional pressure, as migrants and refugees are also arriving from Croatia via Slovenia.

No way through: A Syrian refugee baby plays in front of riot police at the Istanbul-Edirne highway as they wait for permission to pass Turkish Greek border to reach Germany in Edirne, Turkey

Barrier: A crawling baby looks up at the police blockade as they wait for permission to pass the Turkish Greek border

Exhausted: A refugee lies on the ground as hundreds of migrants camp for a second day, as they try to march down a highway towards Turkey's western border with Greece and Bulgaria

Elsewhere, a five-year-old girl has drowned after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, close to the Turkish coast today.

The Greek coastguard said a further 13 people are missing while 11 were rescued and one person managed to swim to shore.

'We are looking for those missing,' a spokesman for the coastguard said.

At least 750 people were rescued today from three small boats in international waters near the Libyan coast by a ship operated by Doctors Without Borders.

A fourth rescue operation by MSF's Bourbon Argos search-and-rescue vessel was currently underway.

But at least seven bodies, including a child, were recovered as an oil tanker rescued 102 migrants from the Mediterranean off Tripoli on Friday.

Tensions mounting: Migrants react as Turkish police and gendarmes block migrants on a highway near Edirne, Turkey

Furious: A man holding a child reacts as Turkish police block migrants on a highway near Edirne, Turkey

Family: A father carries his child as Syrian refugees and migrants face Turkish riot police during a short clash in front of the riot shields of a line of Turkish police blocking the route

Caring: A woman and a child use a blanket to keep warm as migrants and refugees gather along the tracks at the train station in Tovarnik, Croatia, today

Locked out: A child sits with other refugees behind a fence between Croatia and Slovenia at the border station of Obretzje, Slovenia today. Slovenian police have blocked the crossing into the country

Four pregnant women were listed as missing after the dinghy they were travelling in deflated. A Libyan tanker's crew spotted the people struggling in the water and went to their aid.

'We were some 22 nautical miles northeast of Tripoli when at around 9am we spotted a group of people in the water,' said Mohammed al-Kone, an officer on board.

'They were near a rubber boat which had deflated but was carrying seven bodies, including that of a small child'.

The tanker alerted the coast guard and took the survivors to Tripoli port, towing the inflatable boat. At the port, a grief-stricken survivor recognised his child among the victims.

For years, the North African country has been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

Earlier this month, Libya's coastguard said it rescued more than 100 migrants off Qarabulli, 60 kilometres 36 miles east of Tripoli, after the engine on their rubber dinghy broke down.

The latest tragedies come less than a week after 34 refugees drowned off Farmakonisi, believed to be the largest recorded death toll from any single accident in Greek waters since the migrant crisis began.

Four babies, six boys and five girls died when the boat sank off Farmakonisi, 12 miles from the Turkish mainland.

Journey: A group of migrants walk towards the Serbia-Croatia border, near the western-Serbia town of Sid today

Pushing on: Migrants queue for buses at Tovarnik, Croatia, to take them north despite moves by Slovenia and Hungary to hold them back

Exhausted: Migrants walk on a highway near Edirne, Turkey, today, as the Balkan countries continue to clash over the migrant crisis

Rest: A group of refugee sleep last night next to the railway track in the eastern-Croatia town of Tovarnik, close to the border between Croatia and Serbia

Children: A young boy sits on his father's shoulders at the Hungarian-Austrian border in Heiligenkreuz, Austria, as thousands of migrants wait for their departure to Germany today

Tensions mount: Refugees crowd at the Hungarian-Austrian border in Szentgotthard, Hungary, today

Military control: Migrants queue up for buses after they arrived at the border between Austria and Hungary near Heiligenkreuz, about 180 kms (110 miles) south of Vienna, Austria

Pictures have emerged of a huge pile of deflated dinghies and life-vests, left behind by the refugees and migrants who have successfully made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

The International Organisation for Migration said nearly 474,000 people had so far this year braved perilous trips across the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

But the EU's official statistics agency revealed that only one in every five migrants claiming asylum in Europe is from Syria.

At the Croatian border town of Baranjsko Petrovo Selo, a Syrian businessman complained: 'The Iraqis are throwing away their passports on the beach in Greece and saying they are Syrian. The Pakistanis, the Afghans...they are all Syrian now.'

It is a bitter and frequently repeated complaint from Syrian refugees along the route from Turkey to Europe.

Heartbreaking: A mother cradles her dead child after their boat sank off the coast of Libya. Survivors were picked up by a passing oil tanker

Tragic: A member of the Libyan Red Crescent gently move the body of a child who drowned after the rubber dinghy deflated

Drowned: Members of the Libyan Red Crescent evacuate the bodies of illegal migrants after a Libyan oil tanker rescued a group of migrants off the coast of the Libyan capital Tripoli

Yesterday, Canada's conservative government said that it would accept 10,000 Syrian refugees within one year by simplifying and speeding up the immigration application process.

Visa officers will no longer ask the applicants to prove that they are refugees through a United Nations refugee agency, but will instead 'presume those fleeing the conflict meet the definition of a refugee, which will make processing faster,' the Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship said in a statement.