A doctor struggling to cope with the numbers of injured patients in besieged rebel-held east Aleppo has filed legal proceedings against Russia because of President Vladimir Putin’s continued support of Syrian air strikes on the area.

London-based lawyers acting on behalf of Dr Moawyah Al-Awad, a cardiologist at one of east Aleppo’s last functioning hospitals, said his claim at the European Court of Human Rights is based on Russia’s violation of his and his patients’ right to life and to live free from inhumane and degrading treatment, as specified under international law.

Aleppo, one of the fiercest battlegrounds in Syria’s five-and-a-half year long civil war, has been divided between government and opposition areas since fighting broke out in the city in 2012. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces managed to cut off rebel supply lines into east Aleppo in July, leaving the neighbourhood’s 250,000 residents living under siege conditions since.

East Aleppo has been subject to unprecedented shelling by regime and Russian warplanes since a seven-day ceasefire collapsed last month that has killed at least 330 people, the World Health Organisation says. Monitors and activists on the ground put the figure much higher.

Residents in the besieged part of the city allege that the recent bombing has deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, including two hospitals, two civil defence service rescue centres and several ambulances which have been left completely unserviceable.

Dr Al-Awad has worked at east Aleppo’s Al Quds hospital, which - like many of the area’s remaining medical facilities - now operates from an undisclosed location to shield it from bombing after the original site was destroyed by an air strike in April 2016.

Video shows amazing rescue of child as shelling resumes in Aleppo

There are only around 30 doctors in east Aleppo left to care for thousands of people in need of emergency and other medical care. Their job is complicated by the fact that equipment and drug stocks are beginning to dry up.

Horrific images of surgeries being carried out on floors slick with blood in makeshift clinics and reports of amputations carried out because there isn’t time to save limbs have shocked the world and led the UK, US and France to accuse Russia of war crimes for its complicity in bombing built-up civilian areas.

Russia used its position as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to veto a resolution to reimplement a ceasefire last week. Both Damascus and Moscow maintain that air strikes are targeted at US-backed and al-Qaeda affiliated rebels in east Aleppo who use civilians as human shields.

Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Show all 11 1 /11 Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey's two million Syrian refugees There are already over 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, but their current camps can only hold 200,000 people ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish citizens protest a new deal, also criticised by human rights activists, which will see refugees who arrived in Greece after March 20 be sent back to Turkey AP Photo/Emre Tazegu Turkey's two million Syrian refugees An estimated 80% of Syrian refugee children already in Turkey are unable to attend school BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Refugee children beg for water near the Turkey-Syria border. Turkey has been accused of illegally deporting asylum-seekers back to Syria BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees In Turkey, no-one from outside Europe is legally recognised as a refugee, meaning the 2016 deportations may not meet international legal standards for protecting vulnerable people BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A refugee child cries as she is searched by police at the Syria-Turkey border, where 16 refugees (including three children) have been shot dead in the last four months BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Many refugees are living rough on the streets of cities such as Istanbul or Ankara (pictured) ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish soldiers use water cannon on Syrian refugees BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Syrian refugees shelter from rain in the streets of Istanbul BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A derelict building housing Syrian refugees in Istanbul Carl Court/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey houses around half of all the refugees who have currently fled Syria Carl Court/Getty Images

Speaking during the House of Commons emergency debate on the situation in Aleppo on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that “the wells of outrage [over Russia’s actions] are growing exhausted” but little in the way of a concrete plan going forward emerged.

“Dr Al-Awad’s action sets a standard beyond rhetoric,” his lawyers said in a statement, adding that the case had been sent to relevant countries and UN bodies as well as the European Court of Human Rights.