Turkey's parliament has approved military action against Syria.

It means that the government, if necessary, has the authority for the next 12 months to send troops into Syria or carry out strikes against the country.

This comes a day after artillery shelling from Syria killed five civilians in a Turkish town.

The government had sought parliamentary approval to send soldiers to foreign countries in a memorandum which said that "aggressive action" by Syria's armed forces against Turkish territory posed a serious threat to national security.

Syria has since apologised for Wednesday's attack.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that Turkey's military response to a Syrian mortar attack was "understandable", but that an escalation of the situation should be avoided.