Syrian teenager shot trying to return from Greece to Turkey

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Greek police say a teenage Syrian refugee has been lightly injured after being shot by an unknown man while trying to illegally return to Turkey, from which he had entered Greece months earlier.

The 16-year-old, together with a 21-year-old Iraqi, had bought a small inflatable dinghy in which they planned to cross the Evros river, on Greece’s northeastern border with Turkey, near Didymoteicho.

Police say both men were threatened Thursday by two men in a boat from the Turkish side, who fired at them with a shotgun as they ran away. The incident was announced Friday.

About 57,000 migrants and other refugees, who entered from Turkey, are stuck in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures frustrated their plans to reach Europe’s prosperous heartland.

Several are returning to Turkey.