
It is unclear what form the border controls would take
Germany has reintroduced border controls with Austria, its interior minister has confirmed, halting all trains and deploying 2,100 riot police to help carry out checks.
Speaking at a press conference called at short notice, Thomas de Maizière said the controls were being applied with immediate effect "to bring some order to the entry of refugees".
While the exact nature of the checks remained unclear, the minister described them as a "safety measure" which was within the remit of the Schengen Agreement.
"In Germany the rules will be applied in order to protect refugees," De Maizière said. "Germany has shown a lot of willingness to help, there have been many helpers and volunteers, but this helpfulness must not be overstretched."
A spokesperson for an Austrian rail company said German officials had begun halting all trains trying to cross the border into Bavaria from 5pm local time (4pm BST), while the situation involving traffic going the other way remained unclear.
Reporting on the unexpected move earlier and citing unnamed officials, German daily
Bild said the closing of the border represented "a dramatic shift in refugee policy".
Der Spiegel reported that only those with "valid travel documents" would be allowed to enter the country from Austria "until further notice". Refugees arrive in Munich
Tens of thousands of refugees have been arriving in southern Germany in recent weeks, with some reports suggesting around 13,000 reached Munich on Saturday alone.
According to
Bild, the central government was sending 21 riot police squadrons, each of 100 officers, to help secure the border, after local officials issued a plea for more help from the federal force.
Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian daily, reported that there were concerns in Vienna of a backlog as people were subjected to additional checks to "determine immediately who is entitled to asylum".
It quoted unnamed government officials, who said: "Angela Merkel has assured Chancellor Werner Faymann in a telephone conversation that there will be no chaos."
Thomas Stobl, a senior member of Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats party (CDU), told
Die Welt that he welcomed the return of controls.
"The controls that have been introduced on the border with Austria are the right thing to do," he said. "They'll enable us to at least slow down the acute inflows of refugees."
Comment: So the EU can now destroy the migrant boats under the pretext that they are all operated by smugglers. And no mention of where the refugees on those boats will go.