ICRC: fighting in Syria’s Aleppo province displaced 50,000 people

The humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, the ICRC added, with water supplies to Aleppo city cut.

The Assad regime is attempting to recapture opposition-held parts of the major city backed by Russian air power.

Turkey is under pressure to allow in 30,000 Syrian refugees stranded on its border, PanARMENIAN.Net reported.

In a statement, the ICRC said supply routes for aid had been cut, putting civilians under "enormous pressure". "The temperature is extremely low and, without an adequate supply of food, water and shelter, displaced people are trying to survive in very precarious conditions," said the head of the ICRC in Syria, Marianne Gasser.

Medicines, Sans Frontieres (MSF), has warned that fighting in Azaz, near the Turkish border, has left health systems "close to collapse".

New arrivals from the fighting have been forced to seek shelter in already thinly-stretched refugee camps, according to the charity.

"There is a risk that people, including young children and the elderly, could be stuck living in the open in freezing conditions, for several days at least," said MSF’s Muskilda Zancada.