Haunting image of Syrian boy rescued from Aleppo rubble depicts human cost of air strikes

Syrian opposition activists have released haunting footage showing a young boy rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of a devastating air strike in Aleppo.

The image of the stunned and weary-looking boy, sitting in an orange chair inside an ambulance covered in dust and with blood on his face, encapsulates the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city and is being widely shared on social media.

A doctor in Aleppo on Thursday identified the boy as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh. Osama Abu al-Ezz confirmed he was brought to the hospital known as “M10” on Wednesday night following an air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Qaterji with head wounds, but no brain injury, and was later discharged.

Rescue workers and journalists arrived at Qaterji shortly after the strike and began pulling victims from the rubble.

“We were passing them from one balcony to the other,” said photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan, who took the photo. He said he had passed along three lifeless bodies before receiving the wounded boy.

A doctor at M10 later reported eight dead, among them five children.