“A group of young men attempted to get into Hungarian territory in an organised and violent manner in the small hours of Tuesday morning at the road border crossing point at Röszke, and people smugglers with knowledge of the local area are suspected of having assisted the large group”, the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister declared at the site of the incident

György Bakondi pointed out that the incident happened at the same place where an even larger group of migrants attempted to break their way into Hungary in the autumn of 2015.

“Border security worked; the migrants were unable to access the interior of the country and meet with the people smugglers who were probably waiting for them”, the Chief Advisor stated.

“The group of around sixty young men first attempted to cross the border fence into Hungarian territory in the immediate vicinity of the border crossing point at around 05:20 a.m., and a few minutes later they crossed the border after trampling down the barbed wire barrier at the pedestrian border crossing. They ignored the requests of the security guards monitoring the border crossing pint, but after one of the guars fired several warning shots the group turned back. The police apprehended four illegal border crossers”, Mr. Bakondi said, summarizing the night’s events.

“The reinforcement of the border has begun in the immediate vicinity of the border crossing point, and a security fence is being installed to replace the barbed wire barrier in places where this was previously impossible because of a telecommunications cable”, he told reporters.

“The police are performing multi-step monitoring at the border, which is under significant migration pressure. The border is also being patrolled by police helicopter”, Mr. Bakondi stated.

The Chief Security Advisor said migrants are once again choosing the Serbia-Hungary route instead of the previously popular Bosnia-Croatia-Slovenia route, and accordingly new measures have had to be introduced to guarantee the security of the border, and this system functioned well”, he added.

“The Serbian authorities have been informed of events, and have promised to monitor the stretch of the border at Röszke”, Mr. Bakondi said.

In reply to a question, he said that the border crossing station at Röszke will be reopened at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning according to plan.

(MTI)