At least 17 Syrians trying to flee to Lebanon have died of extreme cold and a snowstorm on the border since last week, AFP reported Tuesday (January 23rd).
Local media said "the body of a Syrian refugee woman who had died of the cold" was retrieved on Tuesday in the border region.
The latest find raises the number of such deaths since Friday to 17, a security official said.
The army and civil defence services said Friday that two children and six women were among 10 Syrians whose frozen bodies were found, and the death toll rose over the weekend.
Lebanon hosts just under a million Syrian refugees. Many live in informal tented settlements in the country's east and struggle to stay warm in the winter.
In 2015, Lebanese authorities introduced new restrictions to curb the number of Syrians entering the country, which shares a rocky 330-kilometre border with Syria with no official demarcation at several points.
