Photographs taken by ERR at the scene at around 7 p.m. show a long queue of people waiting on the bridge between the two countries over the River Narva, as well as a long line waiting on the street to enter border control on the Estonian side.

Liisu Anger, the operations manager of the Eastern Prefecture, said Russia's slow border control was to blame.

"The number of border crossings was normal, but the queue started to lengthen significantly at around 2 p.m. due to slow border controls in Russia. On the Estonian side, border crossings went smoothly. Around 5 p.m. there were about 500 people waiting to enter the Russian Federation on the bridge, so we started to regulate the border crossing on the Estonian side, i.e. we let fewer people through the border control. At the same time, we warned people that crossing the border on the Russian side could take a very long time," she said in a statement sent at approximately 8 p.m.

The PPA decided to close the border crossing for pedestrians to protect people's health and safety.

"We took this decision because there were already too many people on the bridge and the queue was moving very slowly. It would have been unsafe to allow new people on the bridge and we could see that they might not reach the Russian side before 11 p.m.," Anger said.

Since May the border has been shut overnight and can only be accessed on foot.

"We advise people who do not want to wait to enter the Russian Federation to return to Estonia immediately. The Russian border crossing is very slow and the Estonian border crossing will close at 11 p.m. and will not open until 7 a.m. tomorrow," said Anger.

The PPA urges people not to travel to Russia and says those who do must be prepared for unpredictability.

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