France demands immediate UN inquiry into alleged Syrian massacre

Bashar al-Assad's government is guilty of an "unprecedented atrocity" if the latest reports on the use of chemical weapons in Syria prove correct, French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday.

Syrian civilians the opposition claims to be victims of the alleged chemical attack

Earlier, President François Hollande called for the UN experts' mission in Syria to look into the accusations that Syrian opposition claims that governemtn forces used chemical weapons in a rebel area of the capital, Damascus, causing hundreds of deaths.

The Syrian army has denied the claims.

Fabius called for the mission to investigate the charges "immediately" at the alleged scene.

While stressing that the claims had not yet been confirmed, he said that, if true, they meant that "a very large number of people, including women and children" were concerned "precisely at a moment when the UN is there".