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SKOPJE (Reuters) - Three migrants drowned while trying to cross a river close to the Greece-Macedonia border that had been swelled by heavy rain, police in Macedonia said on Monday.The bodies of two men and a woman were found in the river early on Monday, a police spokeswoman said. Authorities helped another 23 migrants who were taken to a migrant transit camp in Macedonia. Their nationalities were not confirmed.

At least 12,000 migrants, including thousands of children, have built up near the northern Greek border town of Idomeni but Macedonia and other nations along the so-called Western Balkan route have closed their borders.