Turkey evacuates citizens from Ukraine's besieged Mariupol where thousands have died

Around 30 Turkish citizens are still sheltering in a mosque in Mariupol and 50 have managed to flee the Ukrainian port city that has faced heavy Russian shelling for days, an official said Thursday.

"Thirty Turkish people remain in the mosque, 50 have left," the president of the Suleiman Mosque Association in Mariupol, Ismail Hacioglu, told AFP.

Speaking by phone from the city of Odessa, Hacioglu added that another 70 Turkish citizens living in Mariupol are currently unaccounted for.

There had been conflicting reports last weekend about the Suleiman Mosque, which the Ukrainian government had said was shelled by Russia, but which Hacioglu denied at the time.

On Thursday, Hacioglu said the convoy of those who had fled had been stopped by Russian soldiers in the town of Tokmak, around 170 kilometres (105 miles) to the west.

"They were kept overnight by Russians and had to turn the engines off to conserve fuel, but they were freezing cold. They weren't allowed to get out of the car," Hacioglu said.

He said the aim was to allow them to travel to Uman, a city around 600 kilometres northwest of Mariupol.

Ukraine says more than 2,000 people have died so far in Mariupol.

The port is a key strategic target for Moscow, potentially linking Russian forces in Crimea to the west and the Donbas to the east, while cutting off Ukrainian access to the Sea of Azov.

At least 20,000 people have been able to flee via humanitarian corridors over the past few days to territory under Ukrainian control.