This is what the migrant camp on the Belarusian border looks like 3:50
(CNN) -
Violence erupted on the border between Poland and Belarus on Tuesday, when migrants desperate to cross into the European Union (EU) threw stones at Polish border guards who responded with water cannons and tear gas.
Polish and Belarusian authorities have blamed each other for rising tensions at the border, where thousands of people have traveled in the hope of entering the EU, but are trapped in freezing temperatures.
What you need to know about the crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus
There were chaotic scenes at the Bruzgi-Kuźnica border crossing, where crowds of migrants could be seen breaking concrete blocks and picking up tree branches to throw them towards the Polish side.
Polish agents use water cannons against migrants gathered at the Bruzgi-Kuznica checkpoint.
There was loud banging and a dense cloud of smoke billowed over the crowd.
The Belarusian state media outlet BeITA reported that the water cannons used by the Polish forces sprayed a yellow liquid that caused burns, and that people were suffocating and feeling sick from the smoke.
A CNN team was hit by the water fired by the Polish guards.
A police officer was seriously injured after being hit by a shell, according to Polish police.
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"Fighting to stay alive"
The women and children who, just a day earlier, had camped in tents near the border fence had now retreated, and the men, many of them expressing anger at being left in limbo in horrible conditions, were gathering near the fence and participated in the most dramatic clashes to date.
"We are fighting to stay alive," one man told CNN.
The Polish Border Guard said Tuesday that the migrants camped near the Bruzgi-Kuźnica checkpoint were behaving "aggressively", throwing stones and various objects at Polish agents.
"To prevent illegal border crossing, water cannons were used against aggressive foreigners," the security agency said on Twitter.
Infrared cameras capture migrants on the border of Poland and Belarus 1:22
The Polish Defense Ministry shared on Twitter images showing Polish officers and soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, wearing riot shields, as stones were thrown over the barbed wire border fence, describing the scene as an "attack. of migrants ".
The ministry also accused Belarusian services of equipping migrants with "stun grenades".
Polish security services spokesman Stanisław Żaryn wrote on Twitter Tuesday about the clashes, describing the migrants as "border raiders."
Migrants willing to break through
BelTA reported "an aggravation of the situation" at the border on Tuesday, as migrants try "by all means to reach Poland" and Polish authorities respond with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons, "pouring water to people in the cold. "
"People say they are tired of waiting and are willing to break through," according to BeITA.
It is not clear what triggered the clashes on Tuesday, but there is a growing sense of frustration among immigrants that Europe does not welcome them.
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Poland and Belarus clashed on November 9 over thousands of migrants seeking to enter EU member Poland, and Warsaw said the wave threatened the security of the entire bloc.
(Photo: LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Poland, the European Union and NATO have accused Belarus of orchestrating the crisis, allowing asylum seekers to use Belarus as a reference point on their journey to seek asylum in EU countries.
(Photo by LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Belarus of "state terrorism" over an unprecedented migrant crisis.
LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Minsk warned against "provocations" at the border, where armed soldiers from both countries are deployed amid mounting tensions.
(Photo by LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Poland has sent troops along its border with Belarus to repel a growing population of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, who cross Belarus with the apparent support of the Belarusian authorities.
(Photo by RAMIL NASIBULIN / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Hundreds of desperate migrants are trapped in freezing temperatures at the border and the presence of troops from both sides has raised fears of a confrontation.
(Photo by LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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Migrant camp on the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region.
(Photo by LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)
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In this image released by the Polish Ministry of National Defense, migrants are seen behind barbed wire on the border with Belarus.
(Photo by Irek Dorozanski / Polish Ministry of National Defense via Getty Images)
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A Kurdish family from Dohuk, Iraq, is assisted by activists from the NGO Grupa Granica as they wait for the border guard patrol to take them to the city of Narewka, Poland.
(Photo by Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP) (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
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Anna Chmielewska, an activist with the non-governmental organization 'Fundacja Ocalenie' in a warehouse where clothes and other items needed to help refugees are kept in Sokolka, near Poland's eastern border with Belarus.
(Photo by Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP) (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
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Items likely left behind by migrants, including documents showing that at least some of the group's members were from Iraq and traveled to Minsk via Dubai, lie alongside the train tracks, not far from the Belarusian border.
(Photo by Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
In addition, in the last 48 hours, rumors have circulated in the camps where the migrants are held that Poland was willing to open its humanitarian corridor, a claim that Poland says is not true.
The crisis has led the EU to prepare new sanctions against Belarus, which it accuses of fabricating the crisis on the eastern border of the bloc.
The government of President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for the crossings and accusing it of mistreating immigrants.
With information from Matthew Chance and Antonia Mortensen near the border between Poland and Belaris, Katharina Krebs from Moscow and Eliza Mackintosh from London.
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