Greek police sprayed migrants in Kos with fire extinguishers and hit them with batons in an attempt to control angry crowds waiting to be registered. The incident occurred as hundreds of migrants were being relocated to a local football stadium, after camping alongside roads and beaches across the island for weeks. Fights reportedly broke out among some of the roughly 1,500 people gathered in a long, crowded queue in the stadium, and police resorted to batons and fire extinguishers to try to impose order.

migrants Greece kos police violence
A policeman tries to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with a fire extinguisher during a gathering for a registration procedure on the Greek island of Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece kos police violence
A policeman hits a migrant with a truncheon during a registration procedure on the Greek island of Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece kos police violence
Migrants listen to instructions as they wait for a registration procedure at the stadium on Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece kos police violence
Refugees clash during the registration procedure at a stadium on the Greek island of Kos Yannis Behrakis/Reuters
migrants Greece kos police brutality
Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece kos police violence
A migrant woman faints during a registration procedure at the stadium on the Greek island of Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece kos police violence
A refugee girl is squashed as other clash during the registration procedure on the Greek island of Kos Yannis Behrakis/Reuters
migrants Greece kos police violence
A migrant child cries during a registration procedure at a football stadium on Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP

The incident came a day after an officer holding a knife was caught on camera slapping a migrant.

migrants Greece
A Greek police officer pushes back migrants waiting behind a fence to be registered at the police station on the island of Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
migrants Greece
Migrants wait behind a fence to be registered by the police outside a police station on the island of Kos Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP

Authorities are struggling to contain increasing numbers of people arriving on rubber dinghies from Turkey. Hundreds of people are reaching Greece's eastern Aegean islands daily, many after fleeing conflict in Syria and Afghanistan.

Tensions are rising on several of the islands bearing the brunt of the migrant influx in recent weeks, including Lesbos. Greece has been overwhelmed by the number of migrants arriving, with at least 124,000 people reaching the eastern islands in the first seven months of this year alone. The figure represents a 750% increase over the same period in 2014, according to figures from United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR.

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