A growing stream of ethnic Armenian refugees are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s seizure of the disputed region last week.

BBC News says more than 3,000 people have so far crossed into Armenia from the enclave, which is home to a majority of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

They left after the government warned that those who stayed could face ethnic cleansing.

Azerbaijan has said it wants to re-integrate the ethnic Armenians as “equal citizens”.   

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region in the South Caucasus.

It is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan, but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians for three decades.