Syrian army experts are dismantling explosives and booby-traps left behind by rebels before they left the last neighbourhoods they held in the northern city of Aleppo, according to state TV.

A wave of air strikes and shelling have killed more than 60 people in less than 24 hours in the Syrian city of Aleppo, monitors and activists said.

The UN’s new envoy to Syria said today that president Bashar Assad’s regime should realise that the need for change is both “urgent” and “necessary” and that it must meet the “legitimate” demands of the Syrian people.

Fierce clashes persisted overnight in Syria’s commercial capital of Aleppo, stretching into a fourth day, Syrian authorities and opposition activists said.