City Leader Urges 'Safe Corridor' for Aleppo Civilians

The head of a local council in the east of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday called for a "safe corridor" to allow desperate civilians to flee.

"Let the civilians leave, protect the civilians, put in place a safe corridor so they can leave," Brita Hagi Hassan said after meeting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in Paris.

"In the name of humanity, in the name of international law, we demand that civilians be allowed to leave Aleppo and go where they want to," he told reporters.

More than 50,000 Syrians have joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from eastern Aleppo as government forces press on with an assault on rebel-held areas of the divided city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.

Hassan said Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces were carrying out a "scorched earth policy to devastate Aleppo and then occupy it."

He said 250,000 civilians "are threatened with death", adding: "In the areas recaptured by regime forces and Iranian militias, there are summary executions and the settling of scores. All young men under 40 are being arrested."

Ayrault said protecting civilians was the "priority of the moment", adding: "We have no other choice but to act."

The U.N. Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later Wednesday on the situation, receiving a briefing from a U.N. humanitarian official and the U.N.'s peace envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Syria's opposition National Coalition said it was working with France on a draft U.N. resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, although Russia -- a staunch ally of Damascus -- was likely to veto such a proposal.

Ayrault also announced Wednesday that a meeting of Western and Arab countries that "reject the logic of total war" in Syria will be held on December 10 in Paris.

Government forces now hold at least a third of eastern Aleppo, and are pressing ahead with an assault that could deal rebels their worst blow since the war began.

More than 300,000 people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests calling for Assad's ouster.