Austrian Police Smash People-Smuggling Ring

Austrian police say they have broken up an international people-smuggling ring which has trafficked more than 1,000 migrants.

Seventeen suspects have been arrested in Austria, Germany and Hungary, most of whom were from the southern Russian region of Chechnya.

Among those detained is the organisation's alleged leader, a Syrian based in Budapest, said police.

The migrants being smuggled were mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

They were being transported to Germany, France and other countries across Europe.

"Members (of the organisation) were almost exclusively people from the Russian region of Chechnya based in Austria," a police statement said. Many of the drivers involved were Polish.

Austria and Germany opened their borders in September to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere.

That decision was announced just days after 71 migrants were found dead in the back of a truck abandoned on an Austrian motorway near the Hungarian border.

Austria is trying to take a harder line on immigration, but also wants to avoid a similar tragedy.

The country has been on heightened alert for people-smuggling since it and several Balkan countries coordinated the closure of the main migrant route into Europe earlier this year.