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Spielfeld, Austria: Work began in Austria on Monday on a fence at a crossing point used by migrants on the border with Slovenia, a first in Europe's Schengen zone, an AFP photographer said.
Workers were driving metal posts into the ground at Spielfeld in southern Austria ready to be connected by wire fencing, rolls of which were ready on the ground.
Austria announced last month -- before the Paris terror attacks -- plans for the barrier along a 3.7-kilometre (2.3-mile) stretch either side of the crossing point.
In addition, rolls of barbed wire are to be stored in containers at the border ready to be installed in an emergency, according to the Austrian government.
Chancellor Werner Faymann's government says that the two-metre-high fence is to help it better manage the inflow of migrants and refugees seen in recent months.
Major Gerald Trampusch from the Austrian army, which is helping to erect the fence, told the Austria Press Agency on Monday that work would be completed by December 25.
Austria and Slovenia, which share a 330-kilometre border, have found themselves major destinations for hundreds of thousands of people bound for northern Europe this year.
Most travel onwards to Germany and Scandinavia but Austria still expects a record 95,000 asylum claims this year, making it one of the highest per capita recipients.
Austria's move is the latest in a series of tough measures taken by countries to tackle the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II, a trend which has accelerated since the Paris attacks on November 13.
Two of the assailants in the wave of shootings and suicide bombings that left 130 people dead slipped into Europe through Greece posing as refugees from Syria's civil war, according to French prosecutors.
Since then, countries along the migrant route through the Balkans have tightened restrictions, allowing entry only to those fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Even before Paris, Slovenia last month began erecting razor wire along its frontier with Croatia, a fellow member of the European Union but not of the passport-free Schengen zone of 26 countries.
The flow of migrants has slowed significantly in recent weeks due to poor weather making crossing the Mediterranean more difficult and a Turkish crackdown on people smugglers, according to the UN refugee agency.
AFP
