BICSKE, Hungary (AP) - Hundreds of migrants, stymied by Hungarian authorities who had halted trains to Germany, began a final march toward freedom Friday, breaking away from police and heading on foot for the western border.
In a bid to ease the crisis, the Hungarian government said in a surprise announcement Friday night it was dispatching buses to take hundreds of the marchers to the border with Austria. It was not clear what their fate would be there.
With people streaming in long lines along highways from a Budapest train station and one near a migrant reception center in the northern town of Bicske, the buses would be used because "transportation safety can't be put at risk," said Janos Lazar, chief of staff to the prime minister.
"A migration crisis is shaking Hungary," Lazar said, blaming Germany's "contradictory communications" and the European Union for the crisis.
There was no answer whether Austria will let the migrants in. Lazar said Hungary had asked Austria to clarify its position on the migrants but had not yet received an answer.
The buses will take passengers to the main Hegyeshalom crossing with Austria, although it's not clear if they will trust authorities and get on the buses. Some were tricked earlier in the week to get on a train that did not go to Austria.
"This is a opportunity," Lazar said. "The immigrants have to decide whether they want to take advantage of it. We are taking this step so Hungary's transportation is not paralyzed during the next 24 hours."
The asylum-seekers - many from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - had already made dangerous treks in scorching heat, under barbed wire on Hungary's southern frontier and faced the hostility of some locals along the way. Their first stop will be Austria, on Hungary's western border, though most hope to eventually reach Germany.
Hungarian authorities had refused to let them board trains to the west, and they balked at going to processing centers for migrants, fearing they would then be forced to live in Hungary.
Under European law, refugees are supposed to seek asylum in the first European Union country that they enter. However, most of them see limited economic opportunities and a less-welcoming atmosphere in Hungary than in Germany, Sweden and other Western nations.
Earlier Friday, Parliament tightened its immigration rules, approving the creation of transit zones on the border with Serbia where migrants would be kept until asylum requests were decided within eight days. Migrants would have limited chance to appeal those decisions.
In what the Hungarian media called a "day of uprisings," approximately 350 people broke through a police cordon in Bicske and began heading to Austria 85 miles to the west on tracks leading away from the railway station. Surprised riot police scrambled for their helmets as the huge crowd suddenly surged from the front of the train.
One man, a 51-year-old Pakistani, collapsed approximately 800 yards from the station as he fled and died despite efforts to rescue him.
Those left behind, mostly women and children, were boarded onto buses and taken to the nearby asylum center.
Hours earlier, approximately 2,000 people set out from Budapest's Keleti station for a 106-mile journey toward Austria. Police tried to block them at first but quickly gave up. The marchers moved fast, and by nightfall they had already covered approximately 30 miles.
Along the way, there were gestures of support from Hungarians. Many flashed them the V-for-victory sign and some handed out bottles of water. A small number of locals made clear the new arrivals were not welcome.
"Go home already!" a man shouted in Hungarian from a passing car.
Osama Morzar, 23, of Aleppo, Syria, was so determined not to be registered in Hungary that he used acid on his fingertips, holding his hand up for a reporter to see.
"The government of Hungary is very bad," said Morzar, who studied pharmacology at Aleppo's university. "The United Nations should help."
A couple from Baghdad, Mohammed and Zahara, who marched with a toddler, said they had been in a Hungarian asylum camp and got roughed up by guards because they refused to be fingerprinted. She said she has family in Belgium and is determined to seek asylum there. They would not give their last names.
Austrian police were preparing main border points with reception areas and first-aid facilities. Hans Peter Doskozil, police chief in easternmost Burgeland province, said the measures should be sufficient for the initial influx.
Saleh Abdurahman, a Palestinian refugee from Syria who marched from Budapest, said he was set on escaping a Middle East made intolerable by wars that he blames on the United States and Europe.
The International Organization for Migration said more than 364,000 migrants have arrived in Europe this year - and more than 2,800 have died along the way, most in the sea crossing from North Africa.
Greece and Italy have seen more than 245,000 and nearly 117,000 arrive respectively, most by sea.
In Kobani, Syria, 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi was buried Friday, along with his mother and 5-year-old brother. They were among 12 migrants who drowned off the Turkish coast of Bodrum on Wednesday, and a photo of Aylan's body in the surf has captured the world's attention as a symbol of the migration crisis.
The grieving father, Abdullah Kurdi, survived the tragedy. He said he was abandoning thought of leaving his homeland again.
"He only wanted to go to Europe for the sake of his children," said Suleiman Kurdi, an uncle of the father. "Now that they're dead, he wants to stay here in Kobani next to them."