Impatient refugees walk to Germany from Salzburg

The refugees made the 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) trek after Deutsche Bahn canceled train service from Salzburg, saying their trains were overloaded. Within a half hour, the station was emptied, confirmed Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, spokesman for the Austrian Interior Ministry.

"They lost their patience," Grundboeck said. "They weren't under arrest; they were free to move and from their perspective, they were being blocked from going where they wanted to go."

Orderly reception in Germany

As of 5 p.m. local time, more than 1,400 had crossed the green border via a pedestrian bridge, where German police met them and accompanied them to the town of Freilassing, said Rainer Scharf, a police spokesman. This is in addition to about 1,300 who had crossed earlier in the day via train or taxi. On Tuesday, 3,500 refugees arrived and 350 people were arrested for smuggling.

More refugees were arriving continually, walking along the B304 highway, Scharf said. He downplayed the idea that the mass exodus had put a spanner in the plans by the German and Austrian governments of an orderly handling of the refugees streaming across borders.

The border police were "very present," said Scharf. Each refugee was taken to a reception area where they were registered and fingerprinted. So as not to overburden any one area, the new arrivals will be distributed to centers throughout the entire country, he added.

Scharf did not know whether those refugees who wished to travel further to Sweden, the Netherlands or other countries would be allowed to do so.

Sleeping in a parking garage

On Tuesday, about 1,200 of the refugees spent the night in emergency quarters in the parking garage of the Salzburg train station. Another 400 preferred to spend the night in a train in the hopes that they would be taken to Germany. All had purchased tickets before service had been stopped.

After waiting for most of the morning for service to resume, Salzburg officials offered to bus them to more suitable quarters. When they realized that they were close to the borders, the refugees decided to walk.

Because refugees stay in contact with one another via Facebook and WhatsApp, officials are preparing for more asylum seekers to arrive. With train schedules sporadic, many of the refugees are paying taxis or private drivers to bring them from as far as the eastern border of Austria as well as from Vienna.

While many drivers volunteer their services, other have been demanding high prices - up to 1,200 euros ($1,355) - for their services. In comparison, a train ticket from Vienna to Salzburg costs about 51 euros with taxes.

Because it's illegal for drivers to take passengers across the border, most take them instead to the train station. "This is a huge problem, because it is no longer under control," Wilfried Haslauer, the governor of Salzburg province, told the Austrian Press Association. "Please do not bring anyone more to the train station!"

More asylum requests in Austria

Meanwhile, although some refugees continue undeterred towards Germany, others have decided to remain in Austria. Karl-Heinz Grundböck, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the number of such requests has risen 50 percent.

In previous weeks, about 300 people per day were requesting asylum. In the last 48 hours that number had climbed to 850, Grundböck said. Austria had been expecting 30,000 asylum seekers this year, though that number will now be corrected upward, he added. In a country of 8.5 million, the number of asylum seekers represents less than half a percent of the population.

The number of new arrivals slowed Wednesday, a day after Hungary sealed its borders and declared a state of emergency. Although there were reports that refugees would be arriving via Croatia and Slovenia, police in the southern state of Styria said so far only about 75 had arrived.

More than 4,000 refugees were expected in Croatia on Wednesday. Police in Styria were in close contact with their counterparts across the border and were prepared to accept them if and when they arrived, said Fritz Grundnig, a police spokesman for Styria.