Austria, Germany to take in refugees bottled up in Hungary

Austria and Germany have agreed to take in hundreds of refugees who broke away from Hungarian police and began marching towards Western Europe after days of being stranded at Budapest’s international train station.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announced the decision on Saturday after speaking with his German counterpart Angela Merkel.

Following the announcement, Hungary started providing buses, which would pick up the weary travelers. Reports say the first buses carrying refugees arrived at the Hungary-Austria border on Saturday morning.

The asylum seekers have already made dangerous treks in scorching heat, crawling under barbed wire on Hungary’s southern frontier and facing the hostility of some locals along the way.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 stormed into the Budapest train station when police opened it up to refugees after two days. The decision to shut down the terminus had come after several thousand boarded trains to Austria and Germany on Monday.

However, Hungarian authorities banned the trains from leaving westwards, resulting in chaotic scenes when a train stopped at the northern Hungary town of Bicske near one of the country’s four main camps.