More than 100 injured in Aleppo in gas attack - Syrian state media

A Syrian man receives treatment at a hospital after a ‘toxic gas’ attack in the regime controlled Aleppo on November 24, 2018 [GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images]

A Syrian woman receives treatment at a hospital after a ‘toxic gas’ attack in the regime controlled Aleppo on 24 November 2018 [George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty Images]

A Syrian woman arrives for treatment at a hospital after a ‘toxic gas’ attack in the regime controlled Aleppo on November 24, 2018 [GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images]

Shelling wounded more than 100 people in a suspected toxic gas attack in Syria’s Aleppo, which a health official described as the first such assault in the city.

The shells caused dozens of people breathing problems on Saturday night in Aleppo, while government shelling killed nine people in a village in Idlib, a monitoring group said.

State news agency SANA said on Sunday 107 people were injured in Aleppo after three districts were hit with projectiles containing gases that caused choking. It marks the highest such casualty toll in Aleppo since government forces and their allies besieged and recaptured the city nearly two years ago.

Syrian opposition groups denied using chemical weapons and accused the Damascus government of trying to frame them.

Abdel-Salam Abdel-Razak, an official from Nour El-Din al-Zinki, said that revolutionary factions did not own chemical weapons or have the capacity to produce them.

“The criminal regime, under Russian instructions, is trying to accuse the rebels of using toxic substances in Aleppo. This is purely a lie,” he wrote on Twitter.

Moscow, a key Damascus ally, accused opposition factions on Sunday of bombarding Aleppo with shells filled with chlorine gas, poisoning 46 people, including eight children.  Russia also said it would talk to Turkey, which backs some groups in the Idlib stronghold and has brokered a ceasefire with Moscow in the northern province.

A Syrian boy receives treatment at a hospital after a ‘toxic gas’ attack in the regime controlled Aleppo on November 24, 2018 [GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images]

A Syrian woman receives treatment at a hospital after a ‘toxic gas’ attack in the regime controlled Aleppo on November 24, 2018 [GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images]

“The explosive (shells) contain toxic gases that led to choking among civilians,” Aleppo police chief Issam al-Shilli told state media. “They were taken to Al-Razi hospital and Aleppo University Hospital for treatment as a result of the irritating substance they inhaled.” Pictures and footage showed medical workers carrying patients on stretchers and helping them with oxygen masks.

Zaher Batal, the head of the Aleppo Doctors Syndicate, told Reuters:

We can not know the kinds of gases but we suspected chlorine and treated patients on this basis because of the symptoms

Batal said symptoms included difficulty breathing, eye inflammation, shivering and fainting. Hospitals had discharged many patients.

Batal called it the first such gas attack in Aleppo city in the conflict, which has raged for more than seven years.