Violence erupts on the border between Poland and Belarus: Polish guards fire water cannons at migrants who throw stones

(CNN) – Violence broke out on the border between Poland and Belarus on Tuesday, when the desperate migrants to cross At the European Union (EU) they threw stones at Polish border guards who responded with water cannons and tear gas.

Polish and Belarusian authorities have blamed each other for the increase from the tensions on the border, to which thousands of people have traveled in the hope of being able to enter the EU, but who find themselves trapped in freezing temperatures.

There were chaotic scenes at the Bruzgi-Kuźnica border crossing, where crowds of migrants could be seen breaking concrete blocks and picking up tree branches to throw them towards the Polish side.

There was loud banging and a dense cloud of smoke billowed over the crowd. Belarusian state media BeITA reported that water cannons used by Polish forces sprayed a yellow liquid that caused burns, and that people were suffocating and feeling sick from the smoke. A CNN team was hit by the water fired by the Polish guards.

A police officer was seriously injured after being hit by a shell, according to Polish police.

“Fighting to stay alive”

The women and children who, just a day earlier, had camped out in tents near the border fence had now retreated, and the men, many of them expressing anger at being left in limbo in horrible conditions, were gathering near the fence and participated in the most dramatic clashes to date.

“We are fighting to stay alive,” one man told CNN.

The Polish Border Guard said Tuesday that the migrants camped near the Bruzgi-Kuźnica checkpoint were behaving “aggressively”, throwing stones and various objects at Polish agents. “To prevent illegal border crossing, water cannons were used against aggressive foreigners,” the security agency said on Twitter.

The Polish Defense Ministry shared images on Twitter showing Polish officers and soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, wearing riot shields, as stones were thrown over the barbed wire border fence, describing the scene as an “attack. of migrants “. The ministry too accused Belarusian services of equipping migrants with “stun grenades”.

Polish security services spokesman Stanisław Żaryn wrote on Twitter on Tuesday about the clashes, describing the migrants as “border raiders.”

Migrants willing to break through

BelTA reported “an aggravation of the situation” at the border on Tuesday, as migrants try “by all means to reach Poland” and Polish authorities respond with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons, “pouring water to people in the cold. “

“People say they are tired of waiting and are willing to break through,” according to BeITA.

It is not clear what triggered the clashes on Tuesday, but there is a growing sense of frustration among immigrants that Europe does not welcome them.

Furthermore, in the last 48 hours, rumors have circulated in the camps where the migrants are held that Poland was willing to open its humanitarian corridor, a claim that Poland says is not true.

The crisis has led the EU to prepare new sanctions against Belarus, which it accuses of fabricating the crisis on the eastern border of the bloc.

The government of President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for the crossings and accusing it of mistreating immigrants.

With information from Matthew Chance and Antonia Mortensen near the border between Poland and Belaris, Katharina Krebs from Moscow and Eliza Mackintosh from London.