Growing numbers of Syrian civilians are fleeing abroad to escape conflict at home, especially in Aleppo, and Turkey is building more refugee camps in anticipation of a larger exodus, the United Nations said on Friday.

Nearly 150,000 refugees have registered in four neighbouring countries since the conflict began 17 months ago, it said, while others are reaching Maghreb countries and southern Europe.

The total includes 50,227 in Turkey, where more than 6,000 Syrians arrived this week as Syria's largest city of Aleppo came under heavy bombardment from government forces. The number of refugees registered in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq is also rising.

"There certainly in the past week has been a sharp increase in the numbers arriving in Turkey, and there many of the people are coming from Aleppo and surrounding villages," Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

"Now if you look at other areas, I think that the situation is more of a steady and continued increase, but where fighting happens we tend to see the consequences," he said.

Reuters