Thousands of Syrians massed at Turkey border after flight from Aleppo

Syria's foreign minister said on Saturday there could be no ceasefire until both Turkey and Jordan have closed their borders with Syria.

Walid Muallim, speaking to the Reuters news agency, said "caravans of terrorists" were continuing to cross into Syria from Jordan and Turkey, its neighbours to the south and north respectively, and that a ceasefire could not be considered until after the borders are closed.

Muallim's comments came a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry said both Russian and Iranian officials have indicated that they are ready for a ceasefire in Syria, even as a government-led offensive on Aleppo continued to force tens of thousands of people to flee northwards towards Turkey.

Almost half a million people who remain in Aleppo - once Syria's largest city and an industrial hub - are now are risk of coming under siege after government advances cut the last supply lines into opposition-held areas of the city late last week.

Thousands of those who have already fled remained stuck on the border between Syria and Turkey on Saturday morning, after Ankara closed the frontier earlier this week.

Local news site Orient broadcast footage of huge streams of people, carrying suitcases and bundles of possessions on their heads, filling the road leading to the Bab al-Salama border crossing point between Syria and Turkey.

One man who spoke to Al-Jazeera Arabic - who did not want to be named - said his home had been destroyed by a bombing raid which he and his family barely survived.

"The plane came, and the whole house collapsed on top of us... The women and children were thrown to the ground. We had to get out from under those planes."

Another, wearing a thick winter coat to protect from the cold, said he plans to return to Syria as soon as the bombing stops.

"When they stop the planes, we will all return to our homes. Nobody here is happy to be going to Turkey."

The Turkish aid agency, IHH, has distributed tents to people stranded on the Syrian side of the border as a temporary measure, the body said on Saturday.

Night-time temperatures are dropping dangerously low in the region, amid driving rain and an unusually cold winter.

EU officials met unofficially in Amsterdam on Saturday, and diplomatic sources told AFP that they would raise concerns over the situation at the border with Turkey.

“We face the very real prospect that there will be another huge influx of refugees [into Europe] … as a result of the indiscriminate bombing around Aleppo,” Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said as he went into the meeting.

Turkey stressed on Saturday afternoon that it is committed to the principle of "open borders" for refugees, although it remains unclear whether the large numbers of people stranded on the Syrian side have been able to cross.

Turkish news site Daily Sabah on Saturday reported that up to 110,000 people were headed towards the border in what has been dubbed the biggest refugee exodus from the area since unrest began in 2011.

Turkey already hosts more than two million refugees who have fled Syria in over four years of bloody conflict.