Dead left on streets of Aleppo as Syrian city's cemeteries fill up
The dead of Aleppo are being left in the besieged city's streets after its cemeteries ran out of room.
Bodies are being buried in backyards and overwhelming morgues as officials try to find another plot of land to lay them to rest.
Aleppo's old cemetery filled up a year ago and last week the new one was declared full.
"We have no more room," said Mohammed Abu Jaafar, the head of the local forensic authority. "Even if I were to consider mass burials, I don't have the machines to do the digging."
Officials have warned that the ongoing assault by government forces in eastern Aleppo is making it even harder to dig graves anywhere for the dead.
Government forces have bombarded eastern Aleppo for the past two weeks, retaking much of the area from rebels, who have held it for four years.
So far, more than 310 civilians have been killed, including 42 children, and up to 220 rebel fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien pleaded for access to the area to prevent it becoming "one giant graveyard".
People have died as they flee the fighting, with at least 50 killed in government bombings in the past few days
Abu Jaafar said: "There are wounded people everywhere. I am afraid I will step on them as I walk."
In the past four years, more than 20,000 residents of Aleppo province have been killed, more than 80% of them in rebel-held areas, according to the SOHR.