Syrians fearful of reprisals poured out of a northern town at the centre of anti-government protests yesterday as pressure on President Bashar al-Assad grew at the UN Security Council.

Some of those fleeing the town of Jisr al-Shughur sought sanctuary in neighbouring Turkey after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would not turn away Syrian refugees.

About 160 Syrians crossed in two separate waves yesterday, bringing to 550 the number taking refuge in Turkey in recent days, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The first group, mostly adult men, crossed through barbed wire at the border near the village of Guvecci in the Mediterranean province of Hatay, following some 120 others who arrived overnight.

A second group of some 100, mostly women and children without injuries, arrived in the afternoon in Karbeyaz village, 30 kilometres north of Guvecci, and were then escorted by police to a refugee camp.

The large number of Syrians fleeing the country amid Assad’s regime brutal crackdown on protesters is deeply worrying, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

“There is a meaningful number of Syrians who have crossed the border into Turkey... and of course this is an area of enormous concern to us,” Antonio Guterres told reporters in Stockholm.

Mr Erdogan said earlier yesterday that Turkey would keep its door open to Syrians fleeing repression and renewed a call on Mr Assad to introduce democratic reforms.

Later yesterday, the US gave its support to a UN Security Council resolution being proposed by Britain and France that condemns Syria for its brutal crackdown on opposition protesters.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at a Security Council meeting on Syria that Washington was “trying to convince others in the council” to back the measure condemning actions by the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad.