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Local residents and members of the Jaish al-Islam rebel group have been digging graves to bury the corpses in a bid to preserve hair and clothes of some of the 75 killed in the April 7 attack.

They hope the bodies will help the UN-backed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in their investigation to establish whether or not chemical weapons were used.

Brigadier General Zaher al-Sakat, Syria’s former chemical weapons chief who defected several years ago, told the Sunday Telegraph: “Only three or four men know where the site is.

“They were buried just as they were found. It will be easy to get samples from the hair and clothes and eventually prove what was used.”