Greek Mayor of Kos Warns of "Bloodshed" as Police Beat Migrants

Greek police on the tourist island of Kos beat hundreds of migrants with truncheons and sprayed them with fire extinguishers as chaos broke out when the authorities were rounding up migrants in a soccer stadium in order to register them.

Kos Mayor Giorgos Kiritsis told the Greek ANA news agency there "was a risk of bloodshed if the situation degenerates" further. He claimed that there were more than 7,000 migrants on the island, which has a population of 30,000 people.

#Greece: Police attack migrants with fire extinguishers during registration in Kos. Photos: @atzortzinis pic.twitter.com/7hXooutRH2

— ѕyndιcalιѕт (@syndicalisms) August 11, 201

Images from the scene showed at least one woman had already fainted in the heat and many children were crying as the tightly packed group of people pushed for space.

RELATED: The Making of the Migration Crisis

The latest standoff between the migrants and the police on the island comes a day after a Kos police officer was suspended after video footage showed him slapping a migrant while brandishing a knife.

Police officer holding a knife slaps refugee #Greece #Kos https://t.co/u7Ui48ciuR

— V Lampos (@lampos) August 11, 201

The Hellenic Police Headquarters ordered an urgent inquiry into photographs posted on social media on Monday that portrayed "reprehensible actions of a police officer," according to a statement issued on its website.

The migrants, who are mostly fleeing violence in Syria and Afghanistan, have been on the island for months camping alongside streets, beaches and parks.

The migrants also staged a sit-in on Tuesday demanding faster registration as they blocked the main coastal road in the island's main town. “We want papers, we want to eat,” they chanted.

The United Nations reported last week that this year alone over than 124,000 migrants have arrived in Europe, surpassing last year's record. In July, there were 50,000 arrivals, nearly 70 percent of whom were from Syria.

Meanwhile, a U.N. official said last week that the failed European migrant policy was to blame for Greece’s migrant crisis, as he urged European nations to accept more refugees. He said that 86 percent of the U.N. registered refugees came from developing countries.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week called on the European Union to provide assistance to help the country manage the influx of migrants, arguing the crisis-hit nation does not have sufficient resources. 

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