Czech police haul migrants off trains to Germany and 'write numbers on their arms in ink'

Numbers crossing the Czech Republic have jumped in recent days

Migrants wait to board a train to Germany at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest, Hungary, 1 September 2015 (EPA)

Czech police have reportedly begun removing refugees from trains headed to Germany, detaining migrants and numbering them in pen written on their arms.

The Czech prime minister has called a meeting with his counterparts in Austria and Slovakia to discuss the growing influx of migrants in eastern and central Europe.

According to local media, in the early hours of Tuesday morning around 200 refugees were arrested on trains arriving from Austria and Hungary in the southern Czech region of Moravia.

Pictures in Czech media showed police officers writing registration numbers on the wrists and arms of migrants with permanent marker pens, while the refugees themselves told reporters they were travelling from Budapest, had purchased valid train tickets and were allowed to board by police in Hungary.

Michal Hasek, the governor of southern Moravia where the train was stopped, told the Zpravy newspaper that authorities in the region “are preparing for what would occur if the wave of migrants increased”.

A spokesperson for the Czech government said prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka would meet with other European leaders in Bratislava on Monday.

Germany has said it expects to process a record 800,000 migrants this year, as growing numbers cross other European nations to reach it. Most have been going directly through Austria but numbers found in trains crossing the Czech Republic have jumped in recent days.