Dozens including children suffocate to death in chemical attack

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

April 4, 2017 at 07:33

A CHEMICAL attack has killed at least 35 people including nine children with many more wounded after air strikes released “toxic gas” that caused civilians to choke to death in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

Medical sources reported that some victims had foam coming out of their mouths and described it as a sign of a gas attack.

Syrian activists have released pictures and footage of people suffocating to death in the alleged chemical attack in Idlib. Most of the images are too graphic for publication.

Some of the photos showed members of the volunteer White Helmets rescue group using hoses to wash down the injured, as well as at least two men with white foam around their mouths.

The activist-run Assi Press published video of paramedics carrying victims from the scene by a pick-up truck. The victims were stripped down to their underwear. Many appeared unresponsive.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens suffered respiratory problems in the attack, and most of the dead and injured were civilians. Hospitals are reportedly overcrowded with casualties affected by the chemicals.

Syrian children receive treatment following a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, on April 4, 2017. Picture: AFP / Mohamed al-BakourSource:AFP

The nature of the substance has not yet been confirmed. It is also unclear who the planes involved in the attack belonged to.

Syrian government or Russian jets pounded the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idib on Monday morning, the Britain-based war monitoring group said. The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pro-opposition Orient News television said the strikes had killed 50 people and injured more than 150.

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