Austria scrambles to provide transport for rush of migrants

A group of migrants sit on the ground as others queue to board a bus after crossing the border from Hungary to Austria in Nickelsdorf, September 10, 2015. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria has temporarily halted train service from Hungary while it scrambles to provide additional transport for thousands of migrants who poured in from its neighbour state on Thursday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Austria's national rail company, OeBB, said in a statement that it was temporarily stopping train service towards Hungary because of "massive overburdening". A spokeswoman later clarified that traffic was halted in both direction. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that, after days of relative calm in which fewer additional trains were provided, it was taking time to increase rail capacity to handle migrants. "The OeBB's transport capacity is not the same as at the weekend," the spokesman said. (Reporting by Angelika Gruber; Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)