BEIRUT: Thousands of Syrians braved the cold and rain Saturday at the Turkish border after fleeing a Russian-backed regime assault on Aleppo in northern Syria that threatens a fresh humanitarian disaster.

Tens of thousands of people have fled fierce fighting as government forces advanced this week against rebels, severing the opposition’s main supply route into the northern metropolis of Aleppo.

Turkey’s Oncupinar border crossing, which faces Bab Al-Salama inside Syria, remained closed Saturday, an AFP correspondent said.

Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of Turkey’s Kilis province on the border, said at least 70,000 people were heading for the frontier and that the displaced were being accommodated in eight camps on the Syrian side.

Turkey — which is already home to between 2-2.5 million Syrians — is also able to take care of 30-35,000 refugees inside Syria, Tapsiz said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would keep its “open border policy” for Syrian refugees.

“We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia,” he said.

“We have received already 5,000 of them; another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there.”

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 40,000 Syrian civilians have fled the regime offensive.

“Thousands have been sleeping in the open, in fields and on roads,” on the border and in the nearby Syrian city of Azaz, said Mamun Al-Khatib, director of the Aleppo-based pro-rebel Shahba Press news agency.

“And because the main rebel supply route between Aleppo and Turkey has been cut, the price of oil, foodstuffs and baby milk has shot up in the north of Aleppo province,” he added.