OVER 100 people seeking sanctuary in Europe jumped onto the tracks at a busy Athens train station and staged a sit-down protest today.

Disrupting rail services across the capital, the men, women and children whooped and cheered as they demanded to be allowed to travel to Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) attempted to persuade the protesters to voluntarily leave the tracks.

The protesters at the station and across Greece were reportedly prompted by false social media reports that restrictions on travel to northern Europe had been lifted.

Riot police clashed with hundreds of migrants at the military-run refugee camp in Diavata today after protesters tried to break out of the camp and reach the border with Macedonia.

Tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, remain in overcrowded and under-resourced refugee camps across Greece.