Migrants walk towards Turkey’s border with Greece

Scores of migrants including children on Friday headed towards Turkey's border with Greece, seeking entry into Europe.

The development comes in the wake of the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria in an air strike by Syrian government forces, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe.

Since then, Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to "open the gates" in several disputes with European states.

Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said Turkey was "no longer able to hold refugees" following the Syrian attack - reiterating a standing threat by Ankara.

Turkey's Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported that some 300 Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi, Moroccan and Pakistani refugees were gathering at the border with Greece, while others gathered on beaches facing Greek islands off Turkey's western coast.

The deaths of the Turkish forces, which came in an attack late on Thursday, were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February.