Aleppo battle

Rebel sources said a new truce had been in effect from 03:00GMT and evacuations would take place on Thursday.

Russia's defence ministry and sources from Syria's army and the Hezbollah group said preparations were under way.

One convoy of ambulances did try to leave but was shot at and had to turn back, rebel sources said.

Rebel fighters and civilians had been due to leave the city early on Wednesday, but a ceasefire collapsed.

Rebel groups said late on Wednesday that evacuations would take place in the coming hours.

But there has been no confirmation so far from Russia, that helped negotiate the previous deal.

News agencies reported that the ceasefire would come into effect late on Wednesday, with evacuations to follow early on Thursday.

Under the first evacuation deal brokered by Russia and Turkey, civilians and rebels from eastern Aleppo were to be allowed to go to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Lt Gen Zaid al-Saleh, head of the government's local security committee, said rebel fighters did not "have much time" and needed to "surrender or die".

Tens of thousands of civilians are also believed to be in the rebel enclave.

Syrian state TV showed footage of people in Aleppo celebrating, amid reports the army was close to victory.

The director of the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, warned of "real massacres" being carried out in Aleppo.

Forces led by Syria's government have seized at least 75% of eastern parts of the city from rebels in recent weeks.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled those districts, with more than 8,000 leaving during a humanitarian pause on Thursday.

Rebels were also reportedly stopping people from leaving, the UN said.

At a briefing in Geneva, Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, said up to 100,000 people were trapped in "ever-shrinking" areas of eastern Aleppo.

They said civilians were in great danger and they would support any initiative to ease their suffering.

The US and five Western powers also put out a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow aid into rebel-held areas.

The Syrian government has ruled out any further ceasefires.

Its ally, Russia, has called all remaining rebels in eastern Aleppo "terrorists".

Russia said the document infringed the council rule allowing countries 24 hours to consider the final wording.

The US dismissed this as a "made-up alibi", saying Russia wanted to preserve recent military gains by Syrian government troops in Aleppo.

The army are reported to have seized more parts of rebel-held east Aleppo.

If confirmed, that would mean the government had recaptured about 70% of the rebel-controlled area in just over a week.