Hundreds Protest in Syria's Homs after School Bombing

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Syrian city of Homs on Thursday, demanding its governor resign after a suicide bomber killed 47 schoolchildren, a monitoring group said.

The protesters vented their anger at Governor Talal al-Barazi over the deadly attack in a loyalist neighborhood of the government-controlled central city, not at the Damascus government, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Hundreds of people are protesting, chanting slogans against the governor," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The protest began as a mass funeral for the children, but morphed into a demonstration as residents vented their rage over Wednesday's school attack," he added.

The Observatory updated its toll to 47 children killed in the double bombing by a lone suicide attacker against the school.

"Fifty-four people were killed -- 47 schoolchildren aged under 12, four adult civilians and three members of the security forces," said the Britain-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

The school lies in the Akrameh neighborhood of the city, whose residents are mainly Alawite, like President Bashar Assad.

A pro-government Facebook page, the Homs Youth Club, posted a picture purporting to show Thursday's protest. Some of the demonstrators carried Syrian flags, others held their fists up in anger over Wednesday's attack.

"The people are calling for the fall of the governor," read the Facebook caption.