Syria Chemical Attack 'Proof' Smuggled To UN

Syrian activists are smuggling body tissue samples from victims of the alleged chemical massacre to UN inspectors staying in a nearby hotel.

The team of inspectors has been in Damascus since Monday carrying out investigations into previous claims of chemical weapons use during the country's civil war.

However, the Assad regime has yet to allow them to investigate the area where opponents claim his forces gassed more than 1,300 people to death on Tuesday, many of them children.

Activist Abu Nidal said: "The UN team spoke with us and since then we prepared samples of hair, skin and blood and smuggled them back into Damascus with trusted couriers."

However, other activists said the couriers may have struggled to get through to the inspectors who are under heavy guard and government minders.

An activist in a gas mask in the eastern suburbs of Damascus

President Bashar al Assad's forces have been pummelling the area of the attack, known as the Ghouta region, with air raids and artillery strikes, in a move which could hinder access and damage evidence.

The development came as US President Barack Obama made his first comments on the attack saying that images and claims indicated a "big event of grave concern" and warranted "America's attention".

But he said that evidence had to be gathered and that while people looked to the US to act, he could not do so without a UN mandate.

In an interview with CNN, a year after he made the statement that chemical weapons use in Syria would be a "red line" that would trigger US intervention, Mr Obama said:  "Well, we are right now gathering information about this particular event, but I can say that unlike some of the evidence that we were trying to get earlier that led to a UN investigator going into Syria, what we've seen indicates that this is clearly a big event of grave concern.

A child is given oxygen after the alleged attack

"And, you know, we are already in communications with the entire international community. We're moving through the UN to try to prompt better action from them.

"And we've called on the Syrian government to allow an investigation of the site, because U.N. inspectors are on the ground right now."

Foreign Secretary William Hague told Sky News that "time is of the essence" as he carried out urgent talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

He wrote on Twitter: "Every day without UN access is a day in which evidence can deteriorate or be hidden by those responsible."

The dead bodies of animals lie in a street in Zamalka

Mr Ban said that any use of chemical weapons would constitute a "crime against humanity" and urged the regime to co-operate with an immediate investigation.

Significantly, Syria's key ally Russia has joined international calls for the inspectors to be given access to the site of the alleged massacre.

Moscow suggested the attack could be a "premeditated provocation" by opposition forces but urged Mr Assad and the UN to agree to a visit to the site in the Damascus suburbs of Ein Tarma and Zamalka.

Footage distributed by activists, which shows unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth and doctors apparently giving them oxygen to help them breathe, has triggered anger around the world.

The government has denied it used chemical weapons, calling the allegations "absolutely baseless".

In June the Obama administration said it had conclusive evidence that Mr Assad's government had used chemical weapons against opposition forces.

The alleged chemical attack took place in Damascus suburbs

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the intelligence community had been tasked with gathering information on the chemical attack, but that it was "unable to conclusively determine chemical weapons use".

It comes as UN figures showed a million children had fled the country since the civil war began more than two years ago.

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