Aleppo's children suffering the most after intense airstrikes described as 'war crimes' by West

After a weekend of aerial bombardments unrivaled in its ferocity, even by Syria's standards, it is once again the children who suffer the most.

Half of those killed or maimed in airstrikes over the last 72 hours were under 16. Hundreds of children were among the nearly 300 dead and maimed.

More people have died in those hours than in the rest of September.

Doctors say there have been so many attacks on hospitals that patients abandon treatment to flee for their lives.

A chlorine gas attack near a hospital meant that staff and patients hid inside an inner room of the hospital, as injured patients line the floors of the corridors.

"Most of the patients, they ran out of the hospital. They can't stay in this hell," the doctor said.

Exhausted doctors sleep when they can inside the hospital so that they can continue to offer treatment.

"We sleep away from the windows because we are afraid of the glass fragments," the doctor said.

The attacks from the air, blamed on Russian and regime forces, have been described as war crimes by western leaders.

The Russians described their words as "unacceptable rhetoric" insisting that their actions to drive out terrorists are mindful of civilians.