WARSAW: A 23-year-old Syrian migrant was shot and wounded by a Polish soldier as he tried to cross the border from Belarus, an NGO said on Sunday.

The Polish prosecutor`s office said an investigation had been opened into the incident.

The hospitalised migrant recounted that `as he was crossing the forest with a group of other migrants, an incomprehensible scream rang out behind them, followed immediately by a shot that hit him in the back,` Alel(sandra Chrzanowska, a member of the Legal Intervention Association and Grancia border group, said.

The young Syrian, who underwent surgery, `said he wanted to apply for international protection` Chrzanowska said. `The military police opened an investigation,` prosecutor Radoslaw Wiszenko from the northeasat city Bialystok told the PAP news agency.

`According to my information, it was an accident that happened when the soldier stumbled` on the path, Wiszenko said.

The Polish government constructed a metal barrier along the border with Belarus in 2022 and deployed a considerable military and police force to the region to dissuade migrants from crossing illegally, which critics say has been encouraged by Minsk.-AFP