Religious dispute leads to refugee riot

Fighting broke out between asylum seekers over a religious dispute at a refugee camp in Debrecen, eastern Hungary. Riot police had to be called in and they fired tear gas to calm people down and push them back into the camp.

According to a statement on the website of the Hungarian police force, the disturbance began after one migrant ran off with another's copy of the Koran and trampled on it. Several hundred other asylum-seekers joined the fight, which spread out of the camp, where police said some cars in the parking lot were damaged and bins set on fire.

Police sources say one man was detained while one police officer was injured by a stone-thrower.

In the meantime, the Hungarian Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér proposes the establishing of refugee camps outside the territory of the EU. In his opinion, all those fleeing persecution should be received once the asylum procedure has been conducted in these camps, while individual member states should be free to decide individually whether or not to receive economic immigrants.