South Sudan refugees flee violence, report looting, killing

About 60,000 people have fled

South

Sudan

since violence escalated over the past three weeks, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.

"They brought to us very disturbing reports, armed groups operating on roads to Uganda are preventing people from fleeing," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a briefing. "Armed groups are looting villages, murdering civilians and forcibly recruiting young men and boys into their ranks."

The bulk headed to neighbouring Uganda, doubling the flow over that border over the past 10 days, and the rest to

Sudan

and Kenya, the agency added.