GENEVA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- More than 7,100 refugees have crossed from northeast Syria into Iraq in the past seven days, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said here on Tuesday.

A UNHCR spokesperson told a press briefing that three out of four Syrian refugees were women and children, and there were unaccompanied children among the arrivals.

Some refugees, especially children, require psychosocial first aid and psychosocial support as they fled the fighting in fear, the spokesperson said, adding that some of them even witnessed explosions and shelling.

According to the UNHCR, prior to the latest arrivals, some 228,000 Syrian refugees had already found shelter in Iraq, forced to leave their homes by more than eight years of conflict and destruction in the country.