At least three civilians have died in a suspected chlorine gas attack on a rebel-held district of Aleppo as battles continue in the divided Syrian city.
Rescue workers said a mother and her two children were killed in Wednesday night’s bombing, with toddlers and young children among those pictured being given emergency treatment and oxygen masks in hospital.
Khaled Harah, a first responder, said a regime helicopter dropped four barrel bombs on Wednesday night on al-Zebdia district, with one realising chlorine gas.
Mahmoud Rashwani, a pro-rebel activist living in eastern Aleppo, photographed casualties being rushed into hospital on Wednesday night.
He described a six-year-old girl screaming “I can’t breathe” and said he was told of at least 70 people injured. The total could not be independently verified.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Bashar al-Assad’s forces dropped barrel bombs struck the area and had reports of two people killed and several suffering breathing difficulties, although the cause was unclear.
Numerous chlorine gas attacks have been reported during the Syrian civil war, as well as the use of other chemical weapons, with opposition forces targeted in the vast majority of reported cases.
Aleppo has also been the site of numerous air strikes and shelling blamed on both the regime and rebels causing civilian casualties on both sides.
The city, divided between government and opposition control, is the scene of fierce fighting after Islamist rebels fought through regime lines to break a two-month siege on Friday.
Jaish al-Fath, an alliance of Islamist rebels headed by former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, is being targeted by the Syrian regime and its Russian allies as a designated terrorist organisation.
There has not yet been a sign of promised three-hour ceasefires scheduled for Thursday by Russia, which said it would allow humanitarian convoys to enter the city safely following months of desperate shortages of food and medical supplies.
The United Nations has repeatedly called for all parties in the conflict to protect around 250,000 people believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo and allow supplies to reach them.
Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, said the Kremlin would work with Damascus to ensure safe delivery of the aid.
Stephen O'Brien, a UN aid co-ordinator, said he was willing to consider the Russian plan but that a 48-hour pause in fighting was needed to meet all the humanitarian needs in the Syrian city, which was the country’s most populous before the war.
“When we're offered three hours then you have to ask what could be achieved in that three hours - is it to meet the need, or would it only just meet a very small part of the need?,” he asked.
Two weeks ago Russia and the Syrian government declared the opening of ”humanitarian corridors“ out of the besieged areas but they were met with distrust by civilians fearing a ruse to arrest men and seize the city, and it was unclear how many people had left.
Additional reporting by agencies
