New Wave of Airstrikes Devastate Aleppo Syria, killing at least 25 civilians

These are the heartbreaking scenes in Syria's battleground city of Aleppo, where fresh airstrikes have toppled buildings and killed at least 25 people after efforts to revive a ceasefire collapsed.

Rebel-held districts in the east of the city came under intense air and artillery fire for a fifth night on Saturday. 

The United Nations warned today that more than two million civilians have been left without water after heavy Syrian and Russian bombardment damaged a pumping station, and rebels shut another.

The death toll from the latest bombing stands at 25, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights expects this to rise because people remain trapped under rubble.

Among those killed were seven people queuing to buy yoghurt at a market in the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, which sits along the front line that divides the government-held west from the rebel-held east of the city. 

Reports from the scene say a pool of blood and body parts was left strewn at the marketplace, and civil defence services have been left overwhelmed by the crisis.

It comes after at least 47 people were killed in heavy bombing on Friday, including seven children, the Observatory has stated.

Whole streets in the Al-Kalasseh and Bustan al-Qasr have been destroyed, and unexploded rockets remain buried in the roads.

Witnesses described a missile producing earthquake-like tremors and razing buildings down to basement level, where many civilians were sheltered from the bombing.

Several bases belonging to the civil defence organisation known as the White Helmets were damaged in Friday's bombing, and the group has been left overwhelmed by the scale of the destruction.

The group says it has just two fire engines left serving the whole of east Aleppo which, like its ambulances, are struggling to move around the city.

With no electricity or fuel for generators, the streets of Aleppo are pitch black and difficult to navigate at night, and the fuel shortage has also made it tough to fill up vehicles.

A UNICEF statement said: 'It is critical for children's survival that all parties to the conflict stop attacks on water infrastructure, provide access to assess and repair damage to Bab al-Nayrab station, and switch the water back on at the Suleiman al-Halabi station.'

Talks to revive a ceasefire, which was negotiated between Washington and Moscow, brought a few days of respite earlier this month, collapsed.