Yorgos Kyritsis said island was 'out of control' adding: 'There is a real danger of uncontrollable situations'

Officers used were left trying to impose order on the crowd by hitting the fighting migrants with their batons

There were only a handful of police officers left to control a crowd of


The mayor of Kos has warned of impending 'bloodshed' after chaos broke out among 1,500 refugees who staged a protest at a football stadium, demanding food and shelter.

Yorgos Kyritsis issued the warning as the holiday island descended into a battlefield, with police spraying migrants with fire extinguisher foam in an effort to get them to disperse.

The incident took place during a registration procedure which was taking place at the stadium of Kos town, on the south east of the island.

Mr Kyritsus lambasted the situation as being 'out of control', adding: 'There is a real danger of uncontrollable situations. Blood will be shed.'

He claims there are already 7,000 migrants stranded on Kos which has a population of just 30,000 people.

A handful of officers were left trying to impose order on the crowd by hitting the jostling migrants with batons and eventually resorted to blasting them with foam, causing hundreds to flee in panic.

Scroll down for video

Foam: Police officers on Kos were forced to spray crowds with fire extinguishers in a desperate effort to get them to disperse

Covered: A handful of police officers resorted to blasting the crowds with foam, causing hundreds of migrants to flee in panic

Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers, on the Greek island of Kos yesterday

Battle: A handful of undercover police officers were left trying to impose order on the crowd by hitting the jostling migrants with batons

Overwhelmed Kos authorities are struggling to contain increasing numbers of people arriving clandestinely on rubber dinghies from the nearby Turkish shore.

Hundreds of protesting migrants demanding quick registration began blocking the main coastal road in the island's main town yesterday morning, staging a sit-in. 'We want papers, we want to eat!' they chanted.

But some of the migrants, so desperate to find a better future and prepared to risk life and limb to achieve it, appear to have resigned themselves to the futility of the situation.

As the ugly confrontation with the police unfolded, one migrant said: ‘What can I say – is this Europe? If this is Europe, we’re going back to Syria.’

Another said: ‘We want only to go from this island because we live in a miserable way. No bathrooms, no hotels, no places to sleep in.’

Many of those on Kos, a popular tourist destination, had been camping in the main town's parks and squares.

An attempt to have them relocated to a stadium for registration degenerated, with fights breaking out among some of the roughly 1,500 people gathered in a long, crowded queue in the stadium.

Police, who had a force of just a handful of officers to maintain control and carry out the registration, tried to impose order on the crowd by spraying the jostling migrants with fire extinguishers and using batons. Hundreds fled in panic.

A policeman confronts a migrant with a truncheon during a registration procedure at the stadium on the Greek island of Kos

Threatened: Overwhelmed Kos authorities are struggling to contain increasing numbers of people arriving clandestinely on rubber dinghies from the nearby Turkish shore

Hundreds of protesting migrants demanding quick registration began blocking the main coastal road in Kos' main town yesterday

A policeman in plain clothes hits a migrant, as another sprays a fire extinguisher in an attempt to disperse hundreds of migrants

Running in panic: Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers yesterday morning

On Monday an officer on Kos was suspended after being filmed slapping and shoving migrants queueing outside the local police station as they waited to be documented so they could go on to Athens.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week said the refugee crisis 'surpasses' his crisis-hit nation's resources and called for European Union assistance.

The UN refugee agency's division for Europe said last week that 124,000 refugees and migrants have landed in Greece since the beginning of the year.

Similar protests and tension have occurred on several of the islands bearing the brunt of the migrant influx in recent weeks, including Lesbos, where the majority of new arrivals land.

Greece's coast guard said it had rescued 329 migrants in seven separate search and rescue incidents off the coast of Lesbos and Kos in the 24 hours from Monday morning.

Those figures do not include the hundreds more who reach shore themselves in their inflatable dinghies from Turkey, making their own way to the islands' main towns for registration.

Greece has been overwhelmed by the number of migrants arriving, with at least 124,000 people reaching the eastern islands in the first seven months of this year alone. The figure represents a staggering 750 percent increase over the same period last year, according to figures from the United Nations' refugee agency, the UNHCR.

In all, Greek police said Monday that 156,726 migrants had been arrested for entering or remaining in the country illegally from January through July 2015, compared to 32,070 for the same months in 2014.

Crowds: Hundreds of migrants gather for a registration procedure at the stadium in Kos town on the Greek island

Packed: Hundreds of migrants demanding quick registration began blocking the main coastal road in the island's main town

Thirst: Hundreds staged a sit-in in Kos town yesterday. 'We want papers, we want to eat!' they chanted

Fainting: A migrant woman faints as she waits to register her presence in Kos at a registration procedure at a stadium on the Greek island

The news comes as it was revealed that Greece's coast guard rescued more than 1,400 migrants in nearly 60 search and rescue operations near several Greek islands over the past three days as the pace of new arrivals increased.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them fleeing war and conflict in Syria and Afghanistan, have been making their way from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies, overwhelming cash-strapped and understaffed authorities on the islands.

The vast majority then head to mainland Greece and from there, try to access more prosperous European Union countries by either walking across the Balkans from northern Greece or sneaking onto Italy-bound ferries from the west.

Meanwhile, migrants continued their attempts to break into the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais in a bid to reach Britain through the Channel Tunnel.

The 1,417 migrants rescued between Friday morning and Monday morning were picked up at sea in 59 separate incidents off the coasts of the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi and Kos in the eastern Aegean Sea, the coast guard said.

Those figures do not include the hundreds of others who manage to reach the islands' coasts themselves, walking to the main towns to turn themselves in to local authorities and receive registration papers.

Despair: Hundreds of migrants gather for a registration procedure at the stadium of Kos town yesterday

Pushing: A policeman hits a migrant as police try to disperse hundreds of migrants during a registration procedure in Kos town

Shoving: On the island of Kos alone, more than 150 migrants in at least six boats landed on the shore in the early hours of yesterday

On the island of Kos alone, more than 150 migrants in at least six boats landed on the shore in the early hours of Monday morning.

Some 40 Syrians waved and cheered as their boat arrived at the popular tourist destination.

Men jumped into the water to help women and children off the dinghy, with one man so overcome with emotion that he began to sob.

Mukhtar, a Somali migrant who arrived further north, on the island of Lesbos, said he had made his way to Greece in an effort to get to Norway where his family lives.

'I haven't seen my family for 20 years,' said Mukhtar, who would only give his first name, in Mytilene, the island's capital. 'I want to see my family.'

He is one of some 124,000 migrants who reached the Greek islands by boat in the first seven months of 2015, a staggering 750 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency.

In July alone, there were 50,000 arrivals, about 70 per cent from Syria.

Arrival: Greece's coast guard rescued more than 1,400 migrants in nearly 60 search and rescue operations near several Greek islands over the past three days as the pace of new arrivals increased

Coming in: Tens of thousands of people, many of them fleeing war and conflict in Syria and Afghanistan, have been making their way from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies

Rescue: The vast majority then head to mainland Greece and from there, try to access more prosperous European Union countries by either walking across the Balkans from northern Greece or sneaking onto Italy-bound ferries from the west

Background: The 1,417 migrants rescued between Friday morning and Monday morning were picked up at sea in 59 separate incidents off the coasts of the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi and Kos (pictured) in the eastern Aegean Sea, the coast guard said

Saved: A Syrian refugee family arrives on a dinghy at a beach on the Greek island of Kos yesterday

The vast majority land on five islands: Lesbos, Chios, Kos, Samos and Leros, the UNHCR said in a statement released Friday.

'It was very dangerous by the sea. We travelled four times, they caught us three times but the fourth time ... we came here on a safe boat,' Mukhtar said.

The migrants pay large sums to get to Europe.

Just the short crossing from Turkey to Lesbos costs 'approximately $500' said Sajid, a migrant from Afghanistan.

Arrivals have become so frequent they are now seen as routine by locals.

Going for a run: A tourist jogs along a promenade past migrants overlooking a beach at Kos town yesterday evening

Sitting down: Tourists ride bicycles behind migrants on a bench at a promenade of Kos town yesterday

Families: Migrants make their way through a tourist area of Kos town yesterday evening

On Kos, local residents and hotel employees watched unfazed on Sunday as a dozen Pakistani migrants punctured their life raft and gathered their belongings as soon as they landed, and asked for directions to the nearest migrant detention centre.

The migrants' trip is fraught with danger and anxiety about getting turned back.

Greece, in the throes of its worst ever financial crisis, is straining to accommodate the inflow.

The new leftist government closed a large detention centre outside Athens in February, leaving migrants to set up tents in public parks.

It is now building a new centre in central Athens where it says migrants will be free to come and go as they please. It expects to start moving people from parks by Tuesday.

Taken in: A Turkish coast guard helps a Syrian migrant family disembark in Cesme, near the Turkish port city of Izmir yesterday

Lifted: A young Syrian migrant baby arrives in Cesme, near the Aegean port city of Izmir in Turkey

A new start: Members of the Turkish coast guard help a Syrian migrant family to disembark on the shore in Cesme, Turkey

A large group of migrants from Syria were brought to Cesme by the Turkish coast guard who intercepted them as they were trying to reach a Greek island by boat