Turkish border guards have beaten and shot Syrians trying to reach Turkey, Human Rights Watch has said, as fighting in the border province of Aleppo intensifies threatening to force more people to flee.
HRW said in a report based on interviews with victims, witnesses and Syrian locals that in March and April 2016, five people, including a child were killed and 14 were seriously injured as a result of border guards' shootings and beatings.
In response to the report, released on Tuesday, a senior Turkish presidency official said the authenticity of the video could not be verified.
Reuters was not able to verify the report.
A video released by HRW purporting to show the victims of the beatings and shootings depicted a bloodied body with bandages around his exposed torso.
Another male corpse is shown with red and purple marks all over his back and arms.
A recent surge in fighting in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked a 10-week-old partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed UN-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva.
Ankara says it keeps an "open door" policy for those fleeing the five-year conflict.
For more than a year, only those requiring emergency medical treatment not available on the Syrian side have been able to cross legally while others rely on expensive smugglers to guide them on the dangerous route.
Tens of thousands are instead interned in camps on the Syrian side, a version of the "safe zone" policy long championed by Turkey, but one that is not internationally sanctioned or recognised.
"Turkey admits refugees at designated points of entry if and when there is an imminent threat to civilian lives across the border," the official said.
