Twelve migrants have been found frozen to death near Turkey’s border, prompting accusations that they had been pushed back over the frontier by Greek guards.

Their bodies were found near the Ipsala crossing point without shoes and stripped of their clothes, Turkish authorities said.

One died in hospital after being rescued by Turkish officials, according to the governor’s office in Edirne province.

Suleyman Soylu, the Turkish interior minister, said the victims were among 22 migrants who were pushed back by Greek border guards.

He posted blurred images of eight of the bodies on Twitter, including three in shorts and T-shirts, and accused the EU of being “remediless, weak and void of humane feelings”.

Mr Soylu claimed that Greek border units were behaving like “thugs” towards migrants while allowing members of the Gulen movement, a network that Turkey says is behind a 2016 failed military coup, to remain in Greece.

Greece denies Turkish claims that it illegally pushes back migrants trying to reach Europe.

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There are about 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, which acts as a major crossing point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Most then try to enter Greece on smuggling boats headed for the eastern Aegean Sea islands – or by crossing the northeastern land border.

Smuggling gangs have recently used yachts to take migrants from Turkey to Italy.

Dozens lost their lives in the central Aegean last month.

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