“I can t understand why they re doing it this way”, he said, having already waited for 45 minutes.

He did not provide details about how the border controls would work.

All trains between Germany and Austria were suspended for 12 hours.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman insisted Monday that the country was not slamming its doors to refugees but argued the new measures were needed to restore order to the asylum process.

The European Commission said the decision by Germany appeared legally justified.

The situation escalated this week after Berlin reintroduced border controls at the weekend, temporarily suspending all trains between Austria and Germany.

The statement added that the executive would keep the situation under review. There is also discussion inside the government about sending troops to the road and rail borders with Austria to reinforce security, Der Spiegel reported.

There were only about 400 refugees left in Salzburg station, according to officials, down from 2,000 earlier in the day.

The U.N. said Hungary had effectively stopped registering the thousands of migrants crossing from Serbia and was transporting them straight to the Austrian border by train. However, the other side of the coin is a better joint management of our external borders and more solidarity in coping with the refugee crisis.

Tens of thousands have entered Austria from Hungary in recent weeks, all but a handful travelling onwards to Germany by train, and mostly to Munich via Salzburg.

“It’s not so much the number of refugees as the speed at which they’re arriving that’s making it so difficult for the states and the municipalities to cope”, he said. The journey to the border is about 6 kilometres.

More than 4,000 Hungarian soldiers will help police enforce the ban on the border.

“These border controls should be an important signal to the world”, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told the broadcaster ORF late on Tuesday.

The United Nations refugee agency warned the confusion surrounding border policies in Europe could leave migrants, many of whom have made grueling treks through the continent, in “legal limbo”.

With more reportedly arriving authorities estimated about 1000 asylum seekers would stay at the station overnight.

European Union member states’ interior minister will gather in Brussels for an extraordinary meeting to discuss refugee-related issues.