Defence ministry: warning shots fired as group of migrants stormed border

As hundreds of migrants are trapped between two borders, tensions continued to rise overnight.

On the night of Wednesday (November 10), the stranded migrants inside Belarus threw rocks and branches at Polish border guards and used logs to try to break down the razor wire fence in new attempts to force their way into the European Union, the authorities in Warsaw said on Thursday. Polish soldiers fired warning shots.

According to Deputy Interior Minister Bartosz Grodecki, the group was 150 people strong.

The Polish Border Guard informed on Thursday in social media that it had recorded 468 illegal attempts to cross the border, and 42 foreigners had been ordered to leave Polish territory.

Bartosz Grodecki told Polsat News earlier on there had been 453 attempts.

A video shared on Thursday (November 11) by the Polish Defence Ministry on their Twitter page seemingly shows Belarusian border guards carrying heavy arms, such as sniper rifles and grenade launchers.

The crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border has sparked a new confrontation between the EU and Russia, which dispatched two nuclear capable strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace on Wednesday in a show of support for its ally.

The Kremlin said Russia had nothing to do with tensions on the border and suggested the presence of heavily armed people on both sides - an apparent reference to Belarusian and Polish border guards - was a source of concern. The prospect of sanctions on Belarus a "crazy idea", it said.

Since Monday (November 8), the migrants have endured freezing weather in makeshift camps. Poland has reported at least seven migrant deaths in the months-long crisis and other migrants have expressed fear they would die.