3,600 Syrians Treated For 'Neurotoxic Symptoms'

Around 3,600 Syrians have been treated for "neurotoxic symptoms", and 355 of them have died, says the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The victims flooded into three Syrian hospitals on the day that hundreds of people were allegedly killed in a "chemical massacre" outside the capital Damascus.

They all arrived within less than three hours of each other, said MSF director of operations Bart Janssens.

He said the pattern of events and reported symptoms "strongly indicate mass exposure to neurotoxic agent".

"Medical staff working in these facilities provided detailed information to MSF doctors regarding large numbers of patients arriving with symptoms including convulsions, excess saliva, pinpoint pupils, blurred vision and respiratory distress," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 54 children were among the dead.

Western leaders have accused President Bashar al Assad's forces of carrying out the alleged chemical attack.

The Syrian government has strongly denied the claims, and says it has evidence the attack was carried out by rebel forces.

A child victim of the alleged gas attack

MSF provides drugs, medical equipment and technical support to the three hospitals near Damascus, which its staff have not been able to access for security reasons.

"MSF can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack," said Mr Janssens.

"However, the reported symptoms of the patients, in addition to the epidemiological pattern of the events - characterised by the massive influx of patients in a short period of time, the origin of the patients, and the contamination of medical and first aid workers - strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent."

Earlier, Iran warned the West against "military intervention" in Syria and said it believes the alleged gas attack was carried out by rebel forces.

Millions of Syrians have fled the violence

Abbas Araqchi, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, said: "There is evidence that this action was carried out by terrorist groups.

"The concurrence of the use of these weapons with the presence of UN inspectors is itself an indication that there are hands at work to accuse the Syrian government of using these weapons and help the conflict and crisis to continue."

He spoke out after Syrian state TV ran footage of "barrels filled with highly dangerous toxic and chemical agents" as well as gas masks, saying they were only a small sample of what had been unearthed in rebel positions.

The UN's disarmament chief Angela Kane has arrived in the capital to push the Assad regime to allow weapons inspectors to visit the area to assess whether a chemical atrocity has been carried out.

Her visit comes as America boosted its military capacity in the region to give what it called "a range of options available".

The New York Times quoted a senior US administration official as saying Washington was looking at NATO's aerial strikes in Kosovo in 1999 as a blueprint for action against Syria without a UN mandate.

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