Dozens Of Syrians, Including Children, Have Been Killed In An Alleged Chemical Attack

A Syrian child receives treatment following a suspected gas attack.

Mohamed Al-bakour / AFP / Getty Images

Dozens of people, including at least nine children, have been killed after a reported chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria, according to a Syrian monitoring group.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the UK-based group, said 58 people have been killed, after fighter jets bombed the town in Idlib province on Tuesday. Activists and doctors who spoke to BuzzFeed News said the death toll was much higher and hundreds more have been injured. BuzzFeed News has not been able to independently verify the figures.

Horrific pictures and videos – initially shared on a private WhatsApp group by activists to a number of journalists – have been posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Doctors who worked in hospitals near the site of the attack said they were receiving scores of wounded, and many who were fainting, vomiting and foaming at the mouth — signs they said were result of a chemical attack.

Via Twitter

A Syrian doctor at a local hospital told BuzzFeed News many victims who were brought to the hospital came suffocated, and with narrowed eyeballs. "People looked shocked and they lacked awareness," said Firas al-Jundi, a doctor at the Mara al-Nu'man hospital, about 12 miles from Khan Sheikhoun.

Al-Jundi said the hospital has been flooded with injured, and has not been able to take in all of them because it lacks proper medical equipment to treat them. "We are treating the injured in the corridors of the hospital, outside on the ground, anywhere we can find space," he said.

Mohammad al-Salum, a Syrian activist from Khan Sheikhoun, said three bombs struck the area on Monday. "I saw with my own eyes a huge explosion and after the explosion, the dust appeared low," he told BuzzFeed News via WhatsApp.

Mohamed Al-bakour / AFP / Getty Images

Al-Salum said more than 400 people were affected by the attack, and women and children were among the dead. As ambulances rushed to the scene, al-Salum continued, they were targeted by planes flying above.

The Idlib Media Center, which is run by Syrian rebels, reported 150 cases of asphyxiation, and later claimed Russian planes had targeted medical centers near the scene of the first attack. In the hours after news of the attack broke, AFP reported that unidentified planes had bombed one of the hospitals treating the wounded.

Local activists, including the doctors who spoke to BuzzFeed News accused the Syrian regime of dropping bombs with poisoned gases. The attack would not be the first time regime forces have been accused of using chemical attacks against their own people.

In October last year, a joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found forces allied to the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against their people at least three times between 2014 and 2015.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied the use of chemical weapons.

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