Fire engulfed a refugee camp in Bosnia on Wednesday minutes after the site was closed because of its poor condition, deepening a crisis over where to house thousands of migrants during winter.
The centre's former residents looked on as thick black smoke billowed from the site, which the UN migration agency had started withdrawing from earlier in the day because it lacked proper heating, electricity and other essentials for winter.
There were no casualties but the infrastructure of the site was destroyed, police spokesperson Ale Siljdedic told AFP.
Police believe the blaze was started by former residents of the camp, which sits near the northwestern village of Lipa.
Officials are deadlocked over where to shelter some 3,000 migrants in the area, a base for those making attempts to enter neighbouring EU member Croatia.
The Lipa camp was set up in April as a temporary solution, with humanitarian organisations warning that the site was not equipped for winter.
"For several reasons, mostly political, it never got connected to the main water or electricity supply, and was never winterized. And now, with this fire, it never will be," Peter van der Auweraert, the head of the country's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) mission, said in a statement.
"This is a nightmare scenario: these people should be inside in warm conditions, just as the rest of Europe is doing at this holiday time," he added.
'Alarming' situation
Police expect the roughly 1,300 migrants who were staying in the camp to head towards the Bihac region, where some 2,000 others are already sleeping in abandoned buildings.
But tensions could flare as locals have protested against the influx.
Local officials in Bihac have refused the federal government's orders to reopen a reception centre that was abruptly shut down in October, right before municipal elections.
The mayor of Bihac on Wednesday asked police to replace locals who were standing guard in front of the old centre to prevent migrants from entering, regional TV channel N1 television reported.
The European Union, which has provided Bosnia with some 85.5 million euros to assist with migration since 2018, warned this week that migrant situation in Bosnia was "alarming".
Officials must "rise above political considerations" and "act with the utmost urgency to address the needs of all refugees and migrants without shelter and save lives", EU officials said.