BBC News with David Austin

The Red Cross says the first seven people have been evacuated from the Baba Amr district in the Syrian city of Homs to a local hospital. An official in Geneva, Carla Haddad, said a joint team of the International Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent had begun rescuing those in urgent need of medical assistance.

"The ICRC teams and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers have been in Homs since the afternoon, negotiating with the Syrian authorities and the opposition to enter Baba Amr and evacuate the wounded and sick. What happened just a few moments ago is that the operation of evacuation started, and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent team entered with three ambulances inside Baba Amr and just evacuated seven women and children to, I mean, hospitals in Homs."