The European Union (EU) has called emergency talks to find ways of effectively tackling the on-going migration crisis which is escalating and has been described as the worst since after the second world war.

According to the EU, Interior Ministers from all 28 member states would hold an extraordinary meeting on September 14, to address the crisis which it said had reached “unprecedented proportions”.

The meeting, as announced by Luxembourg, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, is coming after hundreds more people drowned in the Mediterranean and 71 discovered dead in a lorry in Austria.

A record number of 107,500 migrants reportedly reached the EU’s borders last month, with most of them fleeing conflicts in Syria and other troubled parts of the middle east and Africa.

Five people have been detained in connection with the deaths of 71 people, most of them thought to be Syrians, in a lorry found on the A4 at Parndorf.

Austrian Interior Minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said: “We will do controls for an undetermined length of time at all important border crossings in the eastern region, looking at all vehicles that have possible hiding places for trafficked people”.

The Austrian checks appear to undermine the EU’s Schengen system, which normally allows unrestricted travel. But in exceptional circumstances countries can reintroduce border controls under Schengen.

The UN said the continuing conflict in Syria is a major factor behind the rise in migrant numbers.