Video footage has been released of a group of 50 to 70 migrants who attempted to storm the Hungarian border earlier this week but were pushed back by border police.
The attempted illegal crossing took place at a checkpoint along the Serbian border at Röszke and saw one border official fire warning shots to deter the migrants from crossing.
Hungarian government spokesman and Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations Zoltán Kovács posted a video of the incident on Twitter on Wednesday morning, labelling the migrants a “violent mob”.
The footage shows the group of migrants attempting to breach the border fence at a checkpoint and then quickly retreating back across when border guards arrive on the scene.
Following the incident, György Bakondi, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Chief Security Advisor, confirmed: “A violent, organised group of migrants tried to invade Hungary at Röszke.”
He added that one man was initially arrested and a second wave tried to cross a short time after the initial incident.
“The Serbian-Hungarian border is under severe pressure, with more than 3,400 people having tried to enter Hungary illegally in January alone,” Bakondi said.
“Illegal groups are still gathering now; this one was a blatantly aggressive and violent group.”
The incident comes as large numbers of migrants continue to build up along the Balkan migration route in recent months, with the Hungarians planning to double their number of border guards and Melania Trump’s native Slovenia seeing citizen patrols forming to intercept illegals.
Greece, the starting point for migrants taking the Balkan route to Western Europe, has also seen a surge of new arrivals, with Greek government estimates indicating that there could be as many as 100,000 new migrants crossing into the country within the next year.
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