World Health Organization says it is deeply alarmed by evidence of gas attack on rebel-held town outside Syrian capital

An estimated 500 people went to Syrian health facilities with “signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals” after the attack on the rebel-held town of Douma at the weekend, according to reports passed to the World Health Organization.

“WHO demands immediate unhindered access to the area to provide care to those affected, to assess the health impacts and to deliver a comprehensive public health response,” said Peter Salama, the agency’s deputy director general for emergency preparedness and response.



UN aid agencies do not have access to most of the enclave of eastern Ghouta, including Douma where the alleged attack occurred. The Syrian government has denied responsibility for the attack.

The report from the WHO’s partners in Syria adds to mounting evidence of the use of toxic gas in the attack, which killed at least 42 people and has raised the prospect of American airstrikes against forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Medics on the ground in Douma – the last besieged town that was under opposition control in the enclave of eastern Ghouta, near Damascus – reported that hundreds of patients arrived on Saturday night with symptoms of exposure to toxic chemicals.

They said the symptoms, which included frothing at the mouth, suffocation, dilated and constricted pupils, corneal burns, central cyanosis – a blue tinge to the skin – and a chlorine-like odour, were consistent with exposure to an organophosphorus compound. Sarin gas is such a chemical.

The attack appears to have prompted a surrender deal the following day by local rebels. Jaish al-Islam, the dominant opposition group in Douma, agreed to leave the town along with thousands of civilians for northern Syria, after weeks of saying they had no intention of agreeing to a deal that would lead to their forcible exile.

Since then, thousands of the estimated 100,000 people still living in Douma have left on buses heading north. More were expected to leave on Wednesday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man and child sit on a road as buses carrying Jaish al-Islam fighters and their families stop at a checkpoint. Photograph: Nazeer a-Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

Douma was the last holdout in eastern Ghouta after other rebel groups agreed to leave other parts of the region, which has been under siege for years and was subjected to multiple chemical attacks in the past.

The worst incident was in 2013 when more than 1,000 people died after the Syrian government launched attacks using nerve agents, which nearly prompted a US intervention in the war.

The possibility of western intervention against Assad was heightened on Tuesday after Russia and its western opponents, the US, UK and France, respectively vetoed duelling resolutions at the UN security council over the latest atrocity.

The UN high commissioner for human rights said the world must react to the use of chemical weapons or risk dire consequences. “After decades when we thought we had successfully outlawed the use of chemical and biological weapons, the world is sitting idly by while their use is becoming normalised in Syria,” said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein. “This collective shrug to yet another possible use of one of the most ghastly weapons ever devised by man is incredibly dangerous.”