Global General

Hundreds of Syrians cross border to Lebanon

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-15 07:29

BEIRUT - Hundreds of Syrians crossed the border into Lebanon Saturday and one man died of gunshots after fleeing his country to the Lebanese border village of Wadi Khaled, a security source told Xinhua.

"One man died after he was shot after crossing the border from Syria and three others were admitted to Lebanese hospitals," the source said.

The number of people fleeing to Lebanon reached its peak Saturday as Syrian security forces cracked down on the Syrian border village of Tal Kalakh, a few kilometers away from the border with Lebanon, it added.

The source said a bit less than 1,000 refugees have crossed the border to Lebanon Saturday.

Protests in Syria have been taking place since March 15 in the first of its kind in almost 50 years.

Lebanese English-language daily The Daily Star reported in its Friday edition that a contingency plan has been set up between the United Nation's refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs to deal with a possible large rise in Syrian families entering Lebanon.