Islamic State: the drama of the massive flight of Syrian Kurdish refugees to Turkey
The Turkish government issued Monday that at least 130,000 Kurdish refugees from Syria crossed the border into Turkey in the last three days.
Officials said they were preparing for what they described as the “worst case scenario”: the arrival of another hundreds of miles of refugees.
Men, women and children flee the advance of the jihadist group calling itself Islamic State towards Kobane, also known as Ain al Arab, one of the main Kurdish cities in Syria.
The militants have already seized dozens of villages near Kobane and there are reports of mass executions and other atrocities.
The latest reports indicate that the extremists are at a distance of between 10km and 15km from Kobane.
The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey already exceeds one million and the government warns that the situation may be untenable.
The arrival of the refugees in recent days has also aggravated old tensions between the Turks and Kurds and led to clashes between the refugees and the police.
Watch the explosive situation on the Turkey-Syria border captured by a BBC crew.