A police officer who appears to slap a refugee outside the police department of Kos while brandishing a knife has been suspended, with an inquiry into the serious being announced.

The officer under investigation appears in a video holding a large knife marking the ground to separate Pakistani and Syrian refugees awaiting to receive documents.

The footage, which was taken by Associated Press video journalist Dalton Bennett, was later uploaded the footage of Twitter and caused uproar.

According to official police records that were published on Monday, a total of 156,726 migrants entered Greece illegally in the first seven months of 2015, up by 500% during the same period of 2014, when the div was 32,070.

The vast majority of new migrant arrivals – about 128,000 – attempted to enter Greece via the maritime borders with Turkey. A total of 61,636 were located on Mytilene, 14,604 on Samos and 21,925 on Chios.