Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WARNING: The video below contains graphic content.
SYRIAN ACTIVISTS HAVE released shocking footage of a small boy sitting in the back of an ambulance after being rescued from the rubble of a building.
The images, released online by the Aleppo Media Center, show the boy being carried from the building which was destroyed in an air strike in the city.
In the video he is placed on a chair in the ambulance, his face stunned and bloodied and covered in dust. As the camera zooms in on him, he puts his hand to the wound on his head, looks at it and wipes some blood on the seat.
A doctor in Aleppo identified the boy as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh. Osama Abu al-Ezz confirmed he was brought to the hospital known as “M10″ last night following an airstrike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Qaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was later discharged.
Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortly after the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble.
Rescued from the rubble
“We were passing them from one balcony to the other,” said photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the footage. He said he had passed along three lifeless bodies before receiving the wounded boy.
A doctor at M10 later reported eight dead, among them five children.
The strike occurred during the sunset call to prayer, around 7.20pm, said Raslan, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubashir.
Omran was rescued along with his three siblings, ages one, six, and 11, and his mother and father from the rubble of their partially destroyed apartment building, according to Raslan. None sustained major injuries, but the building collapsed shortly after the family was rescued.
“We sent the younger children immediately to the ambulance, but the 11-year-old girl waited for her mother to be rescued. Her ankle was pinned beneath the rubble,” Raslan said.
Code names
Doctors in Aleppo use code names for hospitals, which they say have been systematically targeted by government airstrikes. Abu al-Ezz said they do that “because we are afraid security forces will infiltrate their medical network and target ambulances as they transfer patients from one hospital to another.”
Activists living in opposition areas rely on informers in the government-controlled Latakia province to warn residents of impending airstrikes. On Wednesday evening, an informant in Latakia informed activist networks that a jet had taken off from the Russian air base at Hmeimim.
“We expected the plane to arrive in Aleppo airspace in two minutes, and sure enough it did,” said Raslan. “It struck twice.”
No one was injured in the first strike, said Raslan. The second one turned Omran’s life upside down.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Sympathy to the poor woman, but serious sympathy to the poor truck driver, this is becoming all to frequent in this country, he was only doing his days work, minding his own business.
That poor woman. Her whole life turned upside down on a morning where we all should be just enjoying the sunshine and then this happens. Devastated for her.
This is utterly horrible. Poor young mum. Poor wee kid. Words fail me
So tragic. How is that mother ever going to get over this. Rip little man. Watch over your mam.
Looks like it was deliberate. I could be wrong but it looks like attempted murder of the woman and murder/ suicide of the child and man. I know that road well and if he was from Lattin he would know it well too and would know not to overtake. Rip to both and my utmost sympathy to the mother of the little boy.
He’s not eastern European, his parents are Italian, but he was born and raised here,
Don’t like the look where this story is going
It’s easy to condemn but the poor man must have been in a very distressed state of mind to do something like that.
RIP.
Fcuk him. He just destroyed a mothers life and murdered her son. If he lives we would all be saying he should be locked up. But now that he died we feel sorry for him. And don’t get me started on the funeral service for this fella where the priests says “it’s a dark day”.. This man just murdered his son and attempted to murder his partner. S(umbag
Ricky.. Most murdering b@stards are in a distressed state of mind
When a mother murders her children society reaches out the hand of compassion and understanding.
Why is it not the same for fathers?
Ricky. Murdering mothers are worse than mothering dads
Just think about what happened here for a moment………and reflect on how this situation spiralled out of control to this point. The human tragedy involved.
Can we truly say we understand it and as such are in a position to make a judgement call one way or the other?
Sinead I hope you are never in a situation where your mind is so badly messed up by depression that you are not thinking rationally. Obviously this man was out of his mind doing this and it breaks my heart that a little boy has died and his mother had to go through such an assault, but nobody knows his circumstances and shouldn’t be quick to judge that he was ” evil” . I’m not saying I agree with what he did because I don’t , but with serious mental health problems a while back myself I know that your mind does not think normally . I certainly hope this is the case with him because I’d hate to think this WAS an act of pure evil
Oh no. That poor little boy. Whether the crash was an accident or deliberate, no child deserves that.
So sad, too much detail re the crash. Horrible set of circumstances
It’s just so sad to be hearing about theses suicides , people should always realised that life is 2 step backwards and 1 step forward , this carry on could be avoided… RIP to the little lad … So sad !
have your say