| 1 | A migrant assists a woman who has collapsed while the crowd of migrants were pushing the police to enter Macedonia, at the railway tracks on border line with Greece, near the southern Macedonia's town of Gevgelija, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 2 | About 39,000 people, mostly Syrian migrants, have been registered as passing through Macedonia in the past month, twice as many as the month before. |
| 3 | They previously encountered little resistance at the border, but the recent influx has overwhelmed Macedonian authorities who this week declared a state of emergency and stopped many from crossing. |
| 4 | A migrant assists a woman who has collapsed while the crowd of... |
| 5 | A migrant man holding a boy react as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and migrants during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 6 | Macedonian special police forces have fired stun grenades to disperse thousands of migrants stuck on a no-man's land with Greece, a day after Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its borders to deal with a massive influx of migrants heading north to Europe. |
| 7 | A migrant man holding a boy react as they are stuck between... |
| 8 | An Afghan family arrive at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, on a government-chartered ferry carrying about 2,200 migrants from Greek islands. |
| 9 | Greece has been overwhelmed this year by record numbers of migrants arriving on its eastern Aegean islands, with more than 160,000 arriving since January. |
| 10 | An Afghan family arrive at the port of Piraeus, near Athens,... |
| 11 | Macedonian riot police officers clash with migrants near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 12 | Macedonian riot police officers clash with migrants near the border... |
| 13 | A little girl from Syria holds onto a handle in a bus as the ferry she arrived in from the eastern island of Lesbos is reflected in the bus window at Athens' port of Piraeus, Friday, Aug.21, 2015. |
| 14 | About 2,200 Syrian refugees stranded on Lesbos _ which they reached in small boats from nearby Turkey _ due to a dearth of ferry tickets in the high holiday season were on the ferry. |
| 15 | Greece has been overwhelmed this year by record numbers of migrants. |
| 16 | A little girl from Syria holds onto a handle in a bus as the ferry... |
| 17 | An injured migrant lies on the ground after a clash with Macedonian police near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 18 | An injured migrant lies on the ground after a clash with Macedonian... |
| 19 | A migrant boy eating corn near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 20 | A migrant boy eating corn near the border train station of Idomeni,... |
| 21 | A migrant woman welcomes friends at the railway station in the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija after Macedonian police let small groups of migrants with small children cross the border, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 22 | A migrant woman welcomes friends at the railway station in the... |
| 23 | Migrant men help a fellow migrant man holding a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and migrants during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 24 | Migrant men help a fellow migrant man holding a boy as they are... |
| 25 | Wrapped in Mylar sheets after being rescued, Syrian migrants wait to be registered at the port office in Mytlilene, Lesbos, Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 26 | Greece this year has been overwhelmed by record numbers of migrants arriving on its eastern Aegean islands, with more than 160,000 landing so far. |
| 27 | Wrapped in Mylar sheets after being rescued, Syrian migrants wait... |
| 28 | A Syrian migrant boy is covered with a Mylar sheet after being rescued and waits to be registered at the port office in Mytlilene, Lesbos, Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 29 | A Syrian migrant boy is covered with a Mylar sheet after being... |
| 30 | Migrants are covered with Mylar sheets after being rescued as they wait to be registered at the port office in Mytlilene, Lesbos, Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 31 | Migrants are covered with Mylar sheets after being rescued as they... |
| 32 | A migrant rests on the seawall in the port of Mytlilene in Lesbos, Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 33 | A migrant rests on the seawall in the port of Mytlilene in Lesbos,... |
| 34 | Migrants line up to register at the port office in Mytlilene in Lesbos, Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 35 | Migrants line up to register at the port office in Mytlilene in... |
| 36 | Macedonian special police forces fire stun grenades towards migrants near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 37 | Macedonian fired the stun grenades to disperse thousands of migrants stuck on a no-man's land with Greece, a day after Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its borders to deal with a massive influx of migrants heading north to Europe. |
| 38 | Macedonian special police forces fire stun grenades towards... |
| 39 | A migrant woman collects firewood near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, as they wait to be allowed by the Macedonian police to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 40 | A migrant woman collects firewood near the border train station of... |
| 41 | A Macedonian police officer blocking migrants at no-man's land between Greece and Macedonia near the border train station of Idomeni, northern Greece, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 42 | A Macedonian police officer blocking migrants at no-man's land... |
| 43 | A woman migrant with a child enters Macedonia passing the police blockade set at the railway tracks on the border line with Greece, near the southern Macedonia's town of Gevgelija, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 44 | A woman migrant with a child enters Macedonia passing the police... |
| 45 | An UNHCR worker, right, tells migrants to step back from the police blockade, so families with children can be let through first to enter Macedonia, at the railway tracks on the border with Greece, near Gevgelija, Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 46 | An UNHCR worker, right, tells migrants to step back from the police... |
| 47 | Macedonian police officers let migrant families with children enter Macedonia, at the railway tracks on the border with Greece, near Gevgelija, Macedonia, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 48 | Macedonian police officers let migrant families with children enter... |
| 49 | Migrants rest at the railway station in the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija after Macedonian police let small groups of migrants with small children cross the border, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. |
| 50 | Migrants rest at the railway station in the southern Macedonian... |
| 51 | IDOMENI, Greece (AP) - Macedonian police fired stun grenades Friday to disperse thousands of migrants stuck in a no man's land with Greece and clashed with them as they desperately tried to rush over the border, a day after Macedonia's government declared a state of emergency on the frontier to halt a human tide heading north to the European Union. |
| 52 | About 3,000 migrants who spent the night in the open made several attempts to charge the police - and some hurled stones at the Macedonian forces. |
| 53 | At least eight people were injured in the melee, according to Greek police. |
| 54 | Machine-gun toting police backed by armored vehicles spread coils of razor wire over rail tracks used by migrants to cross on foot from Greece to Macedonia, and the army was deployed Friday to the border areas. |
| 55 | Macedonia shut the border to crossings on Thursday. |
| 56 | Hours after Friday's clashes, however, Macedonian police started letting small groups of families with children cross by walking along railway tracks to a station in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia. |
| 57 | "They are letting groups of about 30-40 people go, probably because they want to control the rush into Macedonia," said a Syrian who gave only his first name, Hassan. |
| 58 | He was walking with his family and children over a rusty bridge toward Gevgelija. |
| 59 | "I think they'll let all of us go eventually." |
| 60 | Dozens of people fainted as they tried to position themselves in the line to cross, with riot police pushing them back with shields against the tide. |
| 61 | Children cried and women wept in the chaotic scenes that left many migrants stranded for another night on the dusty field. |
| 62 | Among the injured was a youngster who was bleeding from what appeared to be shrapnel from the stun grenades that were fired directly into the crowd. |
| 63 | A man holding a baby got tangled in razor wire separating the two sides. |
| 64 | The migrants, many with babies and young children, spent the chilly and windy night in a dusty field on the border without food and with little water. |
| 65 | Some ate corn they picked from nearby fields. |
| 66 | "I don't know why are they doing this to us," said Mohammad Wahid, an Iraqi. |
| 67 | "I don't have passport or identity documents. I cannot return and have nowhere to go. I will stay here till the end." |
| 68 | Aurelie Ponthieu, a Doctors Without Borders adviser, said in a statement that Macedonian authorities used violence against harmless and vulnerable people. |
| 69 | "The shocking scenes today are a result of extreme measures to prevent desperate people fleeing violence and war from crossing borders," the statement said. |
| 70 | "But closing borders and using violence is not a solution, it is just provoking a humanitarian crisis on the other side." |
| 71 | The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement that it is "particularly worried about the thousands of vulnerable refugees and migrants, especially women and children, now massed on the Greek side of the border amid deteriorating conditions." |
| 72 | Greece has seen an unprecedented wave of migrants this year, most fleeing wars in Syria and Afghanistan. |
| 73 | More than 160,000 have arrived so far, mostly crossing in inflatable dinghies from the nearby Turkish coast - an influx that has overwhelmed Greek authorities and the country's small Aegean islands. |
| 74 | Few, if any, of the migrants want to remain in Greece, which is in the grip of a financial crisis. |
| 75 | Most head straight to the country's northern border with Macedonia, where they cram onto trains and head north through Serbia and Hungary on their way to the more prosperous EU countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. |
| 76 | Last week, there were chaotic scenes at the Gevgelija train station involving hundreds of migrants trying to board the trains. |
| 77 | Macedonian police said blocking the refugees on the 50-kilometer (30-mile) frontier was introduced "for the security of citizens who live in the border areas and for better treatment of the migrants." |
| 78 | Police denied reports they fired tear gas to control the crowd on the border, saying shock grenades were used to prevent the migrants from the forced entry. |
| 79 | Until now, the border has been porous, with only a few patrols on each side. |
| 80 | Sealing it disrupts the Balkan corridor for migrants who start in Turkey, take boats to Greece or walk to Bulgaria, then make their way through Macedonia or Serbia before heading farther north. |
| 81 | Hungary has begun building a razor-wire fence to keep them out. |
| 82 | Almost 39,000 migrants, most of them Syrians, have registered as passing through Macedonia in the past month, double the number from the month before. |
| 83 | On Greece's eastern islands, hundreds of migrants arrive each day in overladen, often unseaworthy boats. |
| 84 | The Greek coast guard said Friday that a patrol boat from Europe's border agency Frontex had spotted a capsized boat off the island of Lesbos. |
| 85 | One migrant was found dead and 15 others were rescued. |
| 86 | Separately, the coast guard said it had picked up 620 people in 15 search-and-rescue operations in the last 24 hours off Lesbos, Samos, Agathonissi, Leros, Farmakonissi, Kos and Megisti. |
| 87 | That doesn't include hundreds more who have reached the islands on their own. |
| 88 | A Greek government-chartered ferry carrying about 2,200 mainly Syrian refugees from Lesbos - which sees the highest number of arrivals in Greece - reached Athens later Friday. |
| 89 | One of the Syrian passengers, Alan Jamil, said he was not aware Macedonia had closed its border but would find a way out of Greece. |
| 90 | "We don't know, but it isn't difficult for us because we will cross the border, we will ask our relatives how they go, and we will pass," he said. |
| 91 | Thousands of refugees waiting to head for Athens and then the border with Macedonia are stuck on Lesbos, because it is difficult to find ferry tickets at the height of the summer holiday season. |
| 92 | Before heading for Lesbos, the Eleftherios Venizelos ferry had been used as a floating refugee registration center on Kos, an island near the Turkish coast where hundreds arrive daily in small boats. |