Europe's migrant crisis boils over: Kos police break up refugee protest with batons and fire extinguishers after 1,500 migrants stage sit-in at football stadium chanting 'we want to eat'

Fights broke out among migrants on the Greek island of Kos this morning, with police officers forced to spray crowds with fire extinguishers in a desperate effort to get them to disperse. 

The incident took place during a registration procedure which was taking place at the stadium of Kos town, on the south east of the island.

A handful of officers were left trying to impose order on the crowd by hitting the jostling migrants with batons and eventually resorted to blasting them with foam, causing hundreds to flee in panic.

Scroll down for more pictures... 

Overwhelmed Kos authorities are struggling to contain increasing numbers of people arriving clandestinely on rubber dinghies from the nearby Turkish shore.

Hundreds of protesting migrants demanding quick registration began blocking the main coastal road in the island's main town this morning, staging a sit-in. 'We want papers, we want to eat!' they chanted.

Many of those on Kos, a popular tourist destination, had been camping in the main town's parks and squares.

An attempt to have them relocated to a stadium for registration degenerated, with fights breaking out among some of the roughly 1,500 people gathered in a long, crowded queue in the stadium.

Police, who had a force of just a handful of officers to maintain control and carry out the registration, tried to impose order on the crowd by spraying the jostling migrants with fire extinguishers and using batons. Hundreds fled in panic.