
Hundreds of migrants have stormed a train station and clashed with riot police in Greece as part of an attempt to reopen a land route to Germany.

Mothers carrying their babies were seen running from tear gas while fires were started amid chaotic scenes in the village of Diavata, close to the Greek border with Northern Macedonia.

Migrants had gathered in the field hoping to make their way illegally up through the Balkans towards northern Europe. It followed reports on social media of plans for an organised movement to cross Greece's northwest border with Albania in early April.

In Athens, refugees were seen lying on train tracks shouting 'Germany!' and 'open the borders' in a separate protest at the main railway station in Athens.

Hundreds of migrants have stormed a train station and clashed with riot police in Greece as part of an attempt to reopen a land route to Germany. A woman is pictured running with her baby next to flames during heated clashes with cops in nortern Greece today

A female migrant collapses on the ground in Diavata, Greece amid violent clashes between refugees and riot police. It comes after rumours started spreading that the borders had re-opened

Anger: A migrant woman pushes with riot police outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata. Hundreds gathered in a field amid online rumours of a bid to reopen a land route to Germany

Refugees sit on the railway tracks in front of a train during a protest at the central railway station in Athens

Up in flames: A crowd trying to make its way towards the Greek border scuffled with police who responded with tear gas. TV footage showed shrubs burning nearby

Children were seen crying and huddling together after police used tear gas during clashes outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki, today

Separately, migrants holed up in Turkey were heading towards that country's border with Greece following false rumours that Ankara had opened its border gate. Turkish authorities have detained nearly 1,200 migrants there, Turkish media reported.

By Friday morning migrants had set up more than 100 tents in the field at Diavata. A crowd trying to make its way towards the Greek border scuffled with police who responded with tear gas. TV footage showed shrubs burning nearby.

'It's a lie that the borders will open,' Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Vitsas told Greek state television, urging migrants to return to their accommodation centres.

In Athens, a group of about 50 migrants squatted on the tracks of the capital's main railway station shouting 'Germany!' and 'Open the borders.' Several more were at the station under heavy police presence. Services from the station were suspended.

'We want to go to Thessaloniki and then to the borders,' said Amin Omar, a 27-year-old Iraqi Kurd sitting on the tracks. 'We don't know if they are open.'

A migrant shouts during a protest outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki, this afternoon

Flash point: A woman carrying a baby clashes with riot police during chaotic scenes outside a refugee camp in northern Greece today

Riot police pin a man to the ground during the clashes in northern Greece this afternoon. Migrants had gathered in the field hoping to make their way illegally up through the Balkans towards northern Europe

A man holding two baby strollers runs to avoid tear gas thrown by riot police during the violence

A man in a wheel chair faces a cordon of heavily armoured Greek riot police outside of the refugee camp

Riot policemen try to detain a migrant during the rally near the vastly populated refugee camp

Riot police fired tear gas into fields full of migrants as they attempted to disperse the protesting crowd

A woman attacks riot police officers near Daviata on Friday as police try desperately to make the migrants go back to their camps

The situation revived memories of the 2015 migrant crisis, when more than one million people, mostly fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, travelled via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans towards wealthy western Europe.

Turkey drastically curtailed that exodus in 2016 under a deal with the EU. Soon after, Balkan countries shut their borders, blocking a main passage way to northern Europe and stranding tens of thousands in Greece.

Miltiadis Klapas, a Greek migration ministry official, said the latest movement towards the border was 'the result of completely unfounded information that there will be a mass gathering on the borders and that they will open'.

'The borders are closed because of initiatives by other countries,' he said.

Turkish police have detained 496 people in Edirne, the province bordering EU member states Greece and Bulgaria, after migrants flocked there in the hope of crossing the border, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.

A family run as Greek riot police throw tear gas outside a refugee camp in Diavata, a west suburb of Thessaloniki,

A woman holding her child washes her face after Greek riot police threw tear gas during the clashes in northern Greece today

The Athens protest occurred a day after clashes broke out near a camp for refugees and migrants in northern Greece

Authorities did not immediately intervene to disperse the demonstrators but waded in after it became violent

The migrants, mostly Afghan, Iranian or Pakistani, referred to themselves as the 'Convoy of Hope', it said.

Some 700 migrants were also caught in the neighbouring province of Tekirdag after police were positioned on the highway in the direction of Edirne, Demiroren News Agency said.

Authorities were not immediately available to confirm the reports.

Reuters Television footage shot on Wednesday showed Turkish policemen in plain clothes chasing migrants around train tracks and putting them on to buses. Another group, who were sent back to Turkey after illegally crossing into Greece, anxiously waited to be sent to a repatriation centre.

Greek police fired tear gas on Friday to disperse migrants who had gathered in a field near the country's border with Northern Macedonia in the hope of making their way illegally up through the Balkans towards northern Europe

Hundreds have made their way to the field in the village of Diavata since Thursday, galvanized by reports on social media of plans for an organised movement to cross Greece's northwest border with Albania in early April

The situation revived memories of the 2015 migrant crisis, when more than one million people, mostly fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, travelled via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans towards wealthy western Europe

Migrants try to break the police cordon during clashes outside a refugee camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki

The clashes in northern Greece occurred outside an overcrowded migrant camp where police used tear gas and stun grenades to push back hundreds of protesters carrying their belongings and trying to walk to the border with North Macedonia, about 40 miles to the north

In Athens, police said about 300 protesters gathered at Larissis Station, many sitting on the tracks in front of trains. Authorities did not immediately intervene to disperse the demonstrators, while officials from the United Nations refugee agency were trying to persuade them to leave voluntarily

Migrants blocked the main railway station in Athens in protests authorities said were triggered by false reports on social media that restrictions on travel to northern Europe had been lifted

The protest in Greece today occurred a day after clashes broke out near a camp for refugees and migrants in the country, after protesters tried to break through a police cordon and reach the border with North Macedonia, which has been fenced off and heavily policed for the past three years.

The German humanitarian group Sea-Eye says it is asking Berlin to use diplomatic channels to find a safe port for the 64 migrants it rescued off Libya earlier this week.

Sea-Watch spokesman Carlotta Weibl said Friday that the rescue boat Alan Kurdi remains in international waters off Lampedusa and will not approach Italy's southernmost island until it has permission.

She said conditions on board were worsening and that a storm was approaching. She said a request has been made to the German foreign ministry to find a solution.

Malta and Italy have refused to open ports to humanitarian rescue ships, saying their activities encourage smugglers to pack unseaworthy rubber dinghies with migrants looking for sanctuary in Europe.

A migrant man with his child sit at the side of blocked rail way at Larissis rail way central station in Athens

Hundreds gathered in the hope of reviving a route that saw hundreds of thousands enter more prosperous countries in Europe

A migrant holds a banner pleading for urgent help as he takes a stand near tents outside the refugee camp

Refugees sit on the raliway tracks in front of a train during a protest at the central railway station in Athens