Defence Ministry: Belarusian soldiers threatened to fire at our troops. Minsk summons Polish envoy

Warsaw and the European Union accuse Belarus of deliberately encouraging illegal migrants to enter Poland and other EU states via Belarusian territory as a means to put pressure on the bloc. Belarus has repeatedly denied this.

Poland has declared a state of emergency in the border region. It has put up a barbed wire fence on the border and plans to build a wall.

"Yesterday... Polish soldiers located a group of around 250 migrants near the fence," the Polish Defence Ministry said on Twitter. "The Belarusian soldiers guarding them, threatened to open fire at our soldiers."

The Polish soldiers "did not allow themselves to be provoked" and as a result the situation did not escalate further, the ministry added.

The head of the ministry Mariusz Błaszczak posted a photo on Twitter of Belarusian border guards carrying bolt cutters. "Such situations are everyday reality at the border," he wrote.

The Foreign Ministry of Belarus summoned Poland's charge d'affaires on Thursday and issued him a protest, accusing the EU country of escalating the border crisis.

"A decisive protest was lodged with the Polish diplomat in connection with the statement spread by the Polish officials about a certain "entry" into Poland from the territory of Belarus by unidentified "armed men in uniform" on November 2," the Belarusian foreign ministry said in a statement. "Belarus has never provoked and does not intend to provoke border incidents... Artificial operetta performances, organised with the aim of creating a hostile image of Belarus in international public opinion, contradict not only international law, but also all conceivable moral norms," the Belarusian authorities said.

The European Commission and Warsaw say the flow of migrants has been orchestrated by Belarus as a tactic designed to pressure the EU over sanctions it imposed on Minsk. President Alexander Lukashenko is no longer recognised by the EU as legitimate head of state.

On Wednesday, Poland accused Belarus of staging an armed cross-border intrusion and said it had summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires to protest over what it said was "a deliberate escalation" of the migrant crisis.

Belarus denied that such an intrusion took place.

"Warsaw's systemic attempts to groundlessly and shockingly raise the level of tension on the Belarusian-Polish border are seriously alarming," the Belarusian foreign ministry said on its website, calling the accusation unfounded.