Minister of Customs and Trade announced Turkey was closing the 566-mile border on Wednesday after dozens of Turkish trucks were burned or looted at Bab al-Hawa crossing point, the Associated Press reported.

“All checkpoints along the Syrian border are closed starting today,” Hayati Yazici was cited by local NTV television as saying.

Turkish authorities have given assurances that the border is still open to people who flee the violence in the country and are seeking to cross for humanitarian reasons, Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Wednesday. “We do know that people have continued to cross,” she said.

Turkey has 13 checkpoints on its 900-kilometer border with Syria.