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Austrian police clash with people protesting border closure

Published:Sunday | April 3, 2016 | 12:25 PM
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AP
Police use pepper spray to stopp protesters who demonstrate against new borders, on their way in the Italian village of Brenner on the Italian-Austrian border, yesterday.
AP
Police officers stand on the Austrian side of road in the village of Brenner at the Italian-Austrian border during protests against the border yesterday.
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BERLIN (AP):

Austrian police have clashed with protesters demonstrating against the closure of Europe's borders to migrants.

About 1,500 people took part yesterday in a protest at the Brenner border crossing between Austria and Italy.

Towards the end of a peaceful march, dozens of protesters tried to break through a line of Austrian police in riot gear.

Police used batons and pepper spray to drive back the protesters, some of who threw bottles and rocks at the officers.

The Austrian daily, the Tiroler Tageszeitung, reported on its website that two police officers were injured.

Several European Union countries have responded to the influx of migrants from across the Mediterranean by reintroducing border

controls along their previously open frontiers.