More than 88,000 people have crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh so far and the total number of arrivals could rise to 120,000, said a U.N. refugee agency official on Friday.

"We are ready to cope with up to 120,000 people. It's very hard to predict how many will come at this juncture," Kavita Belani, UNHCR representative in Armenia, told a U.N. press briefing in response to a question about refugee numbers.

She said the government was facing challenges addressing the needs of so many people, describing scenes with huge crowds of exhausted and frightened people at registration centres.

(Reporting by Emma Farge Editing by Miranda Murray)