This is the moment a man wrenched a baby from the wreckage of a Syrian building.

In the image in a video from the Shaam News Network, men scramble over the rubble in the aftermath of a devastating airstrike from a Syrian warplane, desperately trying to pull the child from under the rocks.

A Syrian activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the plane bombed the northern town of Azaz near the Turkish border, killing several people.

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A young child is rescued from the rubble of a building destroyed by government airstrike in Azaz

Activist Ahmed Abdelrahman said more people, dead and alive, were still believed to be buried in the wreckage.

The bombing came during a day of intense fighting across the beleaguered nation.

Elsewhere, Syrian rebels struggled to push back President Assad's forces in the largest city, Aleppo, which would be a decisive gain.

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Syrians dig through rubble of a building destroyed by a government airstrike as they search for survivors

Armed with machine guns and homemade rockets, rebels told Reuters they were facing artillery and fighter jets.

At least 30,000 people have been killed since protests against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in February 2011.

More than 700,000 refugees could flee Syria by the end of the year, the United Nations has warned.

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An injured rebel fighter is helped away during heavy fighting with Syrian government troops some 50 metres away in Aleppo's northern Izaa quarter

UN refugee agency, in conjunction with 51 aid agencies, has asked for more aid to help deal with the refugees.

So far donors have given around £100m toward humanitarian assistance for the estimated 294,000 Syrians who have fled abroad but the UN says £302m is needed.