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Migrants taken off Hungarian train near refugee camp

Budapest - A Hungarian train bound for towns near the Austrian border with several hundred migrants onboard was stopped near one of the country's four main refugee camps and the migrants taken off, state news agency MTI reported.

The train stopped at Bicske, around 40 km west of Budapest, and police took the migrants off and directed them onto buses to take them to the nearby camp, MTI reported from the scene.

AFP estimated there were around 200-300 migrants on board.

The train, which left the main Keleti station at 11:20 was due to split, with three carriages due to travel to Szonbathely and the rest to Sopron, both near Hungary's western border with Austria.

The part going to Sopron was packed with people standing in the corridors.

'I think this was a very cynical trick'

A second train headed for Gyor, also near the Austrian border, meanwhile also departed from Keleti with around 100 migrants on board - as well as several dozen riot helmet, an AFP reporter said.

There were around 1 000 migrants on the platform and on the main concourse.

On Tuesday, Hungarian authorities stopped migrants taking trains to Austria and Germany after thousands travelled to these countries on Monday.

They closed Budapest's Keleti station to migrants, leaving some 2 000 people stranded and leading to a tense standoff with demonstrations and scuffles.

Then early on Thursday the station was fully re-opened and hundreds of people stormed inside, cramming into trains.

Hungarian Railways said however that there would be no trains going to western Europe.

"I think this was a trick by the government, the police and the train company. The train looked like it was going to Germany," Marton Bisztrai, a volunteer at Keleti station, told AFP.

"They just want to get people the hell out of here and into camps. I think this was a very cynical trick."

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