Austria: Jubilant refugees celebrate arrival in Vienna

Jubilant refugees sang and danced, celebrating their arrival in Vienna on Saturday following a gruelling journey from Budapest. Some 5,000 people arrived in the city earlier in the day, crossing the border from Hungary. Many went on to take trains to Munich, however due to overcrowding, thousands have been left stranded in Vienna until the morning. In the meantime, volunteers have set up camp at the station distributing food and medical aid to those in need. Thousands of refugees set-off on foot from Budapest on Friday evening, after being refused access to westbound Hungarian trains. The group walked for hours before a convoy of buses, sent by the Hungarian government, took the refugees to the Austrian border. Hungarian authorities had taken radical measures in early September to deal with the unprecedented numbers of people crossing their borders, many without documentation. Firstly, they closed the main station, shutting off access to trains leading to Austria, Germany and other European destinations. This led to a temporary encampment being set up around Keleti station, housing around 3,000 refugees. When the station re-opened, many boarded trains that were destined for processing and detention camps, not other countries as they thought. Both Austria and Germany have agreed to accept the refugees coming from Hungary. "In light of the emergency situation on the Hungarian border today, and in this case, Austria and Germany have approved the continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Facebook earlier on Saturday morning.