Syria: Public Protests after Suicide Bomber Kills 47 Children in a School

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Syrian city of Homs in protest after a suicide bomber killed 47 children in a school.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 54 people died in the incident on Wednesday (1 October), 47 of them children under the age of 12.

The school lies in the Akrameh neighbourhood of the government-controlled city, whose residents are mainly Alawite, like President Bashar al Assad.

Outraged members of the community have called for the resignation of city governor Talal al Barazi, who is accused of attempting to play down the atrocity after he claimed that 30 pupils were killed.

The group's director Rami Abdel Rahman said: "Hundreds of people are protesting, chanting slogans against the governor. The protest began as a mass funeral for the children, but morphed into a demonstration as residents vented their rage over Wednesday's school attack."

Syria's state news agency SANA described the school bombing as "a horrible human tragedy".

Anti-Assad activists have also condemned the attack. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front was behind a similar bombing in Homs that killed 12 people in May.

Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters backed by US-led airstrikes are locked in fierce fighting with Islamic State fighters in the Syrian town of Ain al Arab, on the Turkish border.

The Turkish parliament has approved a motion allowing the government to authorise military incursions into Syria and Iraq to battle the militants.