Polish forces detained a group of about 100 migrants who were attempting to cross the border from Belarus during the night, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said on Twitter that Belarusian forces had first carried out reconnaissance and "most likely" damaged the barbed wire fence along the border.

"Then the Belarusians forced the migrants to throw stones at Polish soldiers to distract them. The attempt to cross the border took place several hundred metres away," it said. 

"A group of about 100 migrants was detained," it said, adding that the incident happened near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne.

Video footage released by the defence ministry showed Polish soldiers surrounding a large group of people crouched down in a wooded area at night next to barbed wire.

Thousands of migrants are estimated to be near the EU border on the Belarusian side, hoping to cross over.

The EU has accused Belarus of artificially engineering the crisis by encouraging migrants to come to the country with the promise of an easy crossing into the European Union.

Belarus denies this and has asked Poland to take the migrants in.