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| Germany to 'reintroduce border controls' with Austria as Munich struggles with refugee arrivals | Germany to 'reintroduce border controls' with Austria as Munich struggles with refugee arrivals |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Germany has deployed 2,100 riot police to shut down its border with Austria and stopped allowing trains full of refugees to enter the country, according to local reports. | |
| Austrian and German newspapers said officials would begin reinforcing border controls of some form from 5pm local time (4pm BST), though the exact nature of the checks remained unclear. | |
| A spokesperson for an Austrian rail company said German officials had begun halting all trains trying to cross the border into Bavaria, while the situation involving traffic going the other way remained unclear. | |
| Citing unnamed officials, German daily Bild said Bavarian officials were set to "close" the border with almost immediate effect, in what it described as a "dramatic shift in refugee policy". | |
| According to the newspaper, the central government was sending 2,100 riot police officers to help secure the border, after local officials issued a plea for more help from the federal force. | |
| Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, has scheduled a press conference for 6pm local time (5pm BST), when he is expected to announce further details of the move. | |
| Tens of thousands of refugees have been arriving in southern Germany in recent weeks, with some reports suggesting around 13,000 reached Munich on Saturday alone. | |
| Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian daily, also reported that Bavarian police were planning to introduce checks. | |
| It said officers would stop people and "determine immediately who is entitled to asylum", but provided no further details as to how this would be done. | |
| Amid fears of a backlog on the Austrian side of the border, Kronen Zeitung quoted unnamed government officials saying: "Angela Merkel has assured Chancellor Werner Faymann in a telephone conversation that there will be no chaos." | |
| The newspaper reported that the border controls would be introduced from 5pm local time (4pm BST), adding that it was assumed Berlin would enforce restrictions "gradually". | |
| Austrian officials said around 6,000 refugees had entered the country since midnight and that it was on course for a record 10,000 for the day, with the vast majority heading for the German border. | |
| A spokesman for the Austrian police force said: "The flow of refugees remains very high." | |
| Munich's mayor, Dieter Reiter, said earlier on Sunday that the city had reached its "upper limit" of capacity for housing refugees. | |
| He said Munich was short around by around "1,000 to 5,000" spaces, adding that while the city was serious about welcoming those in need, it had reached the end of its limited resources. | |
| Also on Sunday, Austrian police said they had rescued 42 people, including five women and eight children, who were found in a refrigerated truck at a rest stop near the border with Germany. | |
| Police said all were in good health and that two Iraqi men suspected of people smuggling were arrested. Last month, 71 people were found dead after they suffocated inside a truck on a highway in Austria. | Police said all were in good health and that two Iraqi men suspected of people smuggling were arrested. Last month, 71 people were found dead after they suffocated inside a truck on a highway in Austria. |
| More to follow | More to follow |