Dozens of people trying to escape villages close to the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo have been killed in an explosion.
The lethal blast, believed to be a car bomb, happened at a transit point for Syrians on the outskirts of the city.
Shocking images of the aftermath show bodies lying on the ground and coaches alight.
State television said the bombing was carried out by ‘terrorist groups’ – a term the regime applies to all armed opposition groups.
It was not immediately clear if rebels at the transit point were among the dead.
The attack took place as thousands of evacuees from the besieged government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya waited to continue their journey to regime-controlled Aleppo, the coastal province of Latakia, or Damascus.
They were on the move following a deal between warring sides supposed to see 30,000 civilians moved to safety.
The blast hit the Rashidin area on Aleppo’s outskirts, where dozens of buses carrying mostly Shi’ite residents of two villages that are being evacuated.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion took place at a place where buses were waiting to transport thousands of people who left Fuaa and Kafraya a day earlier.
More than 7,000 people who had been under crippling siege for more than two years left four Syrian towns on Friday under a delayed evacuation deal brokered by Iran and Qatar.
Around 5,000 people piled onto buses leaving Fuaa and Kafraya while a further 2,200 were evacuated from rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani.
But thousands were stuck on the road Saturday in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.