Greek police fire stun grenade at migrants on FYROM border

Greek police fired a stun grenade at migrants protesting on the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Monday, most of them Syrian and Afghan refugees heading to the EU, a police source said.

A crowd of some 2,000 people had gathered in the Greek border village Idomeni to demonstrate against FYROM's decision to close the border for several hours in an attempt to control the influx of migrants heading towards Hungary, their entry-point to Europes borders-free Schengen Area.

No one was hurt in the brief incident, the source told AFP. Stun grenades produce a blinding flash of light and a huge noise to disorient their targets

Protests on the Greek-FYROM border have become common events in recent days as thousands of people — many of them refugees fleeing war-torn Syria — make the hazardous journey to Greece by sea before heading north through the Balkans, eventually hoping to reach EU countries such as Germany and Sweden.

Several people were injured during clashes on the border late last month, as riot police on the Macedonian side fired stun grenades to drive back thousands of migrants stuck in no-man's land between the two countries.

Europe is struggling to respond to its biggest migration crisis since World War II, with more than 300,000 people arriving this year.

(AFP)