Syrian snipers appear to be targeting pregnant women, according to a British surgeon who has just returned from the conflict zone.

David Nott, who spent five weeks volunteering at a Syrian hospital, told The Times newspaper the gunshot wounds he had treated also indicated that bored snipers were targeting particular parts of civilians' bodies in a bid to entertain themselves.

"One day it would be shots to the groin. The next, it would only be the left chest," he told the newspaper.

"From the first patients that came in in the morning, you could almost tell what you would see for the rest of the day. It was a game."

Dr Nott, a prominent surgeon who counts former prime minister Tony Blair as an ex-patient, said he had treated more than half a dozen shot pregnant women on one day in the Syrian city, which he did not identify for security reasons.

On another day, two consecutive gunshot patients were heavily pregnant women, both of whom lost their babies.

"The women were all shot through the uterus, so that must have been where they were aiming for," he told The Times.

"I can't even begin to tell you how awful it was. Usually, civilians are caught in the crossfire. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this. This was deliberate. It was hell beyond hell."

Dr Nott, who usually works as a vascular surgeon at London's Westminster and Chelsea hospital, has been volunteering as an emergency surgeon in warzones for 20 years, including Bosnia, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN plea to let residents flee besieged suburb

Meanwhile, the UN's humanitarian chief has called for a cessation of hostilities in a Damascus suburb besieged for months by Syrian army, so that food and vital medical aid can be delivered.

Although some 3,000 people were evacuated last week, "the same number or more remain trapped," the UN's Valerie Amos said in a statement, noting that continued shelling and fighting hinder aid workers from reaching the needy in Moadamiyet al-Sham.

"I call on all parties to agree an immediate pause in hostilities in Moadamiyet to allow humanitarian agencies unhindered access to evacuate the remaining civilians and deliver life-saving treatment and supplies," Ms Amos said.

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She emphasised that Moadamiyet al-Sham is not the only town under siege.

"Thousands of families also remain trapped in other locations across Syria, for example in Nubil, Zahra, old Aleppo town, old Homs town and Hassakeh," she said.

"How many more children, women and men will needlessly lose their lives? The humanitarian community has stressed time and time again that people must not be denied life-saving help and that the fighting has to stop."

Claims residents are starving to death

Moadamiyet al-Sham, a suburb south-west of the capital, is largely controlled by rebels seeking the overthrow of the government, although pockets remain under regime control.

The army has laid siege to the area for months, and bombed it near-daily, with the opposition accusing it of creating a situation in which residents are starving to death.

At the end of August, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO, reported two children aged three and seven had died from a disease related to malnutrition.

The group said the siege, which began in April, had prevented doctors from bringing in food or medicine to save the children.

It was also one of the neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Damascus hit in an August 21 sarin gas attack the opposition blamed on the regime and that reportedly killed hundreds.

But the government accuses the opposition of holding residents of the district hostage.

AFP