(Reuters) Czech police chasing a vanload of migrants fired warning shots on Thursday as they began checks on the border with Slovakia to combat a sharp rise in people, mostly Syrians, heading illegally to western Europe.
Police intercepted over 100 migrants and detained nine suspected people smugglers as they began checks on all 27 road and rail entry points and on patrols outside frontier crossings.
The Czechs have detained around 12,000 illegal migrants so far this year, a 12-fold increase from a year ago.
The vast majority have been Syrians, mostly coming from Turkey, the government has said, and they continue travel to Germany and elsewhere after they were checked by police.
