Shooting Heard on Belarus-Poland Border After Warsaw Deploys Counterterrorism Units to Stem Migrants

WARSAW (Sputnik) - Poland has deployed counterterrorism units at the border with Belarus amid the situation with arriving migrants, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Vonsik said on Monday.

"There are additional Border Guard patrols there, the Border Guard has been mobilized as much as possible. Anti-terrorists were also sent to the border today. There are also 12,000 soldiers of the Polish army there," Vonsik said.

Earlier, a spokesman from the State Border Committee of Belarus, Anton Bychkovsky, said that shooting in the area of the border between Belarus and Poland could be heard from the Polish side.

The situation at the Belarusian-Polish border where over 2,000 refugees arrived on Monday remains tense, the Belarusian State Border Committee said.

"The situation on the Belarusian-Polish border remains extremely tense," the committee wrote on its Telegram channel.

The refugees are located in front of Polish barriers at the state border.

"Despite the fact that there were no aggressive actions on the part of the refugees at that time, instead of trying to understand the situation, the Polish security forces used aviation to exert psychological pressure. In addition, tear gas was sprayed against people seeking protection," the committee said, adding that some refugees started "destroying Polish barriers" in response to "unjustified use of special means" against them.

Meanwhile, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said that from 3,000 to 4,000 undocumented migrants were on the border of Belarus and Poland.

"Currently, there are 3,000-4,000 people near the Polish borders, while there are more than 10,000 of them on the territory of Belarus, who are ready to cross the Polish border," Muller said earlier on Monday.

"At the same time, our agencies inform that transports from Arab countries are constantly being organised to the territory of Belarus," he added.

Last month, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland accused Belarus of orchestrating a migrant crisis to get back at Brussels for sanctions against the government of Alexander Lukashenko. The Belorussian president, however, denied the accusations, saying that his cash-strapped country can no longer afford tight border controls.