Warning: This article contains images some may find distressing
A heartbreaking image of a five-year-old Syrian boy sitting bloodied and alone in the back of an ambulance has served as a shocking reminder of the brutality of the conflict.
Omran Daqneesh was pictured by rebels in the besieged city of Aleppo on Wednesday. The city is targeted daily by Russian and Syrian airstrikes.
The image shows the child looking disorientated with an open wound on his forehead, covering half his face in blood.
He is covered head to toe in dust, wearing just a shorts and T-shirt with no shoes.
His image has been shared more than 12,000 times on social media.
Four other children, one woman and two young men were also hurt in the airstrike in the rebel-held Qaterji neighbourhood, a doctor told the Telegraph.
Omran was taken to the M10 hospital, which has been struck repeatedly by airstrikes.
Doctors at the hospital told the Telegraph that about 12 other children all under the age of 15 were treated on Wednesday.
A picture of Omar after he has been treated by medics has been shared hundreds of times on social media.
It shows him bandaged and lying down after being treated by doctors.
Sources on the ground said his condition is now stable.
Since January, 25 hospitals and clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes
The UN has called for a ceasefire so aid can be let into the war-torn city, but have had no luck so far.
The picture has sparked calls for action, with people, including British politicians, asking what can be done.
Labour MP David Baines was shocked at the “horror” of the image, which he described as “bloody awful”.
Lawyer Lydia Shelly said we were “losing a whole generation of children” in Syria and Iraq.
She said it was time for a “political and social resolution to conflict”.
Syrians are photoshopping Omran’s image and sharing it on social media as means of asking the world why nothing is being done about the killing in Aleppo.
Earlier this month pictures emerged of Syrian children in Aleppo setting fire to tyres to create ‘no-fly zones’ for the planes carrying out airstrikes.
The “little heroes” are among civilians burning tyres in the devastated city as the Syrian government and its Russian allies bombard hospitals, markets and aid warehouses, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The children hoped the smoke would confuse the planes bombarding them in the rebel-controlled half of the city, which is facing a humanitarian disaster.
Pictures shared online show children posing beside blazing piles of tyres, while commenters called them “the new generation” of Syrian activists.
The children are among 300,000 people facing desperate conditions as bombs pound their neighbourhoods.
Food supplies in Aleppo are expected to last only a few more weeks, and it was claimed earlier this year that there are only 25 doctors left in the city.
The last children’s doctor was killed in May.