Hungarian police use tear gas to break up clashes at migrant camp

BUDAPEST — Hungarian police fired tear gas to subdue hundreds of people fighting each other and throwing rocks in an overcrowded camp for migrants in the eastern city of Debrecen, authorities said.

Rioting migrants also set fire to garbage and a policeman was injured when a flying rock struck him in the head, Interior Ministry spokesman Attila Samu said.

Hungary, a landlocked central European country of 10 million people, is in the European Union's Schengen visa-free travel zone and thus an attractive destination for tens of thousands of migrants entering Europe through the Balkans from the Middle East and Africa. Most then move on to wealthier western Europe.

The migrant influx has prompted Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to prepare construction of a 175km  fence along its border with Serbia, angering its southern neighbour.

Monday's disturbances started with a fight between two migrants in the camp, which was designed to hold about 823 people but is now crammed with 1,655, on the outskirts of Debrecen, 230 km east of the capital Budapest.

"The conflict broke out after a Turkish migrant seized the Koran of an Afghan migrant and [because] allegedly there were 200 euros of cash inside the Koran," Samu told Reuters.

"This set off the initial conflict, in which subsequently hundreds were embroiled. They broke out of the camp, occupied a road, pelted rocks and set fire to garbage containers. Police then forced them back into the camp."

Police spokesman Denes Dobo said police had arrested one Turkish migrant. "Right now there is calm in the camp, police are upholding public order and security," he said.