Migrants on the Greek-Macedonian border attacked police with stones Saturday, enraged by the sight of Macedonian authorities erecting a fence along the border and an accident that injured a young Moroccan man, NBC News reported.
Authorities said 18 Macedonian officers were injured in the brief but intense clashes. Most of them received minor injuries but two were hospitalized in the nearby town of Gevgelija, Macedonia's Interior Ministry said.
There was no official tally of injured migrants, although Macedonian police targeted them with stun grenades and plastic bullets. Doctors from the Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations said they treated 20 people for head injuries and breathing problems.
The accidental electrocution at the top of a train carriage of a 24-year-old Moroccan, who suffered severe burns, sparked the unrest among the migrants, many of whom have been stranded at the border since Macedonia decided earlier this month, along with Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, to let through only those from the "warzone" countries of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
More than 600,000 refugees and other migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have entered Europe through Greece this year, many after making the short sea crossing from Turkey.
