E. Germany to Let 4,700 Travel West : Communist Regime Slams Door to Any Further Departures

East Germany agreed today to let the 4,700 East Germans holed up in the West German Embassy in Prague travel to West Germany, but the Communist regime also slammed the door on any further departures by suspending unrestricted travel to Czechoslovakia.

Rudolf Seiters, chief of staff to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, said the first train of East German refugees will be departing Prague for West Germany some time after 8 p.m.

It was the second time within a week that East Germany had reluctantly agreed to let its citizens emigrate west. During the weekend, more than 6,000 refugees fled to the West from West German embassies in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Earlier today, several hundred East Germans battled a Czechoslovak police cordon to reach the West German Embassy in Prague, which had been closed because several thousand East Germans already were inside.

Witnesses said about 300 East Germans tore down a makeshift metal barrier blocking a path leading to the back of the embassy, rushed to the fence, which is topped by metal spikes, and tried to scale it as police waded in.

Many East Germans were injured by police truncheons or by spikes but were helped into the compound by staff and West German Red Cross workers who brought out ladders to help the East Germans get over the fence, witnesses said.

While the East Germans clamored to get into the embassy, the East German government tried to make it harder for its citizens to reach Prague by cutting off its visa-free policy.

Until today, East Germans needed neither a visa nor a passport to travel to Czechoslovakia. The state news agency ADN said that, effective immediately, such documents would be required. That will effectively block ordinary citizens from going there.

Prague accused West Germany of being irresponsible for letting another batch of East Germans into the embassy after the 5,000 people left Sunday.

More than 37,000 East Germans from the nation of 17 million have left for the West since May.

Rumors had been circulating in East Germany for weeks that the hard-line Communist leadership would act to stem the flow of refugees, but most had expected East Berlin to act after its 40th birthday celebrations Oct. 7.

In Bonn, chief government spokesman Hans Klein said East German leader Erich Honecker earlier had refused to talk to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl by telephone about the refugee crisis.

Honecker aides said preparations for Saturday’s 40th anniversary of the Communist nation precluded an “appointment for a telephone call,” Klein said.

The anniversary celebration, which is to include a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, comes amid perhaps East Germany’s most embarrassing diplomatic crisis: the exodus of thousands of its citizens.