International chemical weapons inspectors are on their way to the site of an alleged gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma, Russia has said.
The Russian foreign ministry said a special commission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) set out this morning. A spokesperson said Moscow expects the inspectors to carry out an "impartial investigation into all the circumstances of what has occurred", Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
France has suggested that Syria and Russia are covering up evidence of a chemical attack, and has demanded that international inspectors gain access to the town where the incident took place on 7 April.
The OPCW inspectors had arrived in Damascus last weekend to examine the site of the suspected attack, which opposition activists and other observers say killed dozens of people. The US, UK and France later carried out joint missile strikes on sites which they said were linked to Syrian chemical weapons programmes. The inspectors have faced several days of delays in their attempts to reach nearby Douma.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said on Friday that Russia was obstructing the inspectors' access to the town.
He said it was likely that the obstruction was aimed at ensuring that proof of the attack disappeared, demanding full, immediate and unimpeded access to the site for the OPCW experts.
But Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, announced on Saturday that the team were on their way, and condemned the delay as "unacceptable".
Moscow, whose forces in Syria back President Bashar al-Assad's army, has denied that Syrian forces carried out the alleged attack.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels have started to evacuate three towns in the eastern Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside, according to Syrian state media.
The evacuations are the latest in a string of population transfers around the Syrian capital that have displaced more than 60,000 people as the government reconsolidates its control.
