A top UN official on the Turkey-Syria border has warned that a catastrophe unparalleled in the decade-long Syrian war is unfolding.

Mark Cutts, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, told Sky News that nowhere is safe for the civilians who are fleeing a Syrian government and Russian onslaught.

"We are seeing hundreds of thousands of people on the move at the moment. It's a truly horrific situation." he said.

Image: A single rocket killed everyone inside this van - members of three families who had been trying to flee

Image: The bodies of those who died in the attack on the van are loaded onto a truck

"These are women and children and elderly people. This is a huge exodus. Just at a time when we were hoping to see a de-escalation of the situation we are seeing the complete opposite."

Idlib, in northwestern Syria, is one of the last remaining pockets of Syria not yet back in Syrian government control.


"The problem is that there is just nowhere that seems to be safe these days because even some of the areas that used to be safe have been coming under attack," Mr Cutts explained.

"So people keep moving from place to place. But also this is an area that is already full of displaced people. People from many different parts of Syria fled to the northwest.

"People really are desperate, traumatised. They just don't know what to do."

Footage filmed for Sky News has shown the horrific cost of this last push forward by the Syrian military.

Image: An unguided barrel bomb drops on Kafrouma. Such weapons are illegal under international law

Image: The barrel bomb's deadly payload

Images show what's left of a minibus carrying members of three families who had been trying to flee.

Inside the small red van were two fathers, two mothers and four children. They had hoped they would escape this latest bombardment, but it followed them. A single rocket killed everyone inside.

Young children and their parents, all wrapped together in blankets, lay next to the van as an uncle prepared for their burial.

Image: Debris fills the streets of Sarmin, a town close to Idlib in northwestern Syria

"Three families, guys..." he says, sobbing.

On the roads out of both the cities of Aleppo and Idlib, convoys of families have been pushing forward for days now.

Ahead of them, the border with Turkey is closed. The Syrian government army is closing in from behind and their Russian allies are in the sky.

Images from the town of Kafrouma, just outside Idlib city, shows the huge explosions as missiles and bombs fall.

These are the last pockets of land that President Assad's army has not yet retaken. As they push forward at any cost, it seems, the UN is warning of death and displacement not yet seen in this horrific war.

To the south of Idlib, in Saraqib, we filmed Abu Ahmad, his wife, three sons and two daughters preparing to leave their home.

A pick-up is packed with as many belongings as possible.

"I removed my possessions as the rockets fell. I removed my family from under the rockets. And then we'll see where God will take us," he told us.

"Maybe to Afrin. Maybe to Azaz. I don't know exactly. But I took my family and took our possessions from underneath the bombs and from the jets that are killing civilians before they kill fighters."

In the skies above are the sound of the Russian and Syrian jets.

Young Syrian girl pulled alive from rubble

Other images show Syrian helicopters with their barrel bombs; unguided, indiscriminate and illegal under international law. Yet they continue to be a central part of President Assad's arsenal.

Volunteer rescuer Laith Abdullah tells us that the war planes are repeatedly and, he says, indiscriminately targeting civilian populations.

Image: Kafrouma, one of the last remaining pockets of Syria not yet back in Syrian government control

"Refugees are being targeted even when they are trying to flee by jets on the roads. That's the biggest crime... refugees fleeing from death because of the airstrikes and it's still chasing them while they are trying to leave."

In the town of Ariha, south of Idlib, the hospital is destroyed and abandoned after it was hit two weeks ago.

It is the place where so many, already injured, should be receiving treatment.

Image: 12-year-old Mohammed Al Halabi searched for his three siblings in the rubble of his home

In the countryside between Aleppo and Idlib, our cameraman found 12-year-old Mohammed Al Halabi digging alone in the rubble of his home, searching for his three siblings.

Asked about the international response to this latest Syrian crisis, Mr Cutts said: "This is what is so shocking about this crisis. Who is going to protect these people?

"They are looking to the world for support. They are looking to the security council. They are dumbfounded that the world is not doing more."