Empty buses are seen leaving after the evacuation of people from eastern Aleppo was suspended, Syria December 16, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

GENEVA (Reuters) - The evacuation of wounded and civilians from eastern enclaves of Aleppo was aborted on Friday and aid agencies and vehicles were told to leave the area without explanation, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Elizabeth Hoff, WHO representative in Syria, speaking from west Aleppo, told a news briefing in Geneva: “I assume the message (to abort the operation) came from the Russians who are monitoring the area”. Her team of nine staff in east Aleppo had no contact with Syrian authorities at the Ramouseh transit site.

By 7 a.m. local time, 194 evacuated patients had arrived in eight “overwhelmed” hospitals in opposition-held rural parts of western Aleppo, in Idlib and nearby Turkey, according to the latest WHO figures. War-wounded patients have brain and eye damage, while others are being treated for chronic diseases including diabetes, Hoff said.

(This version of the corrects 3rd para to say patients evacuated to opposition-held rural western Aleppo, not government-held part of the city)