DAMASCUS (TASS) — A total of 73 people, including four children, sought medical assistance after a militant attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo, a doctor with the city hospital’s admissions office told reporters on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, Aleppo’s dwelling quarters came under shelling by militants from the Idlib de-escalation zone who used shells stuffed with a toxic substance, presumably, chlorine. According to Syrian medics, more than 70 people were hospitalized after the attack. SANA news agency put the number of those hospitalized at 107.

According to earlier reports, 46 people, including 8 children, were injured as mortar rounds filled with toxic substances landed in the Al-Khalidiyah neighborhood. Presumably, chlorine was used in the attack. The projectiles were fired from positions in the south-eastern section of the Idlib demilitarized zone, near the town of Al-Buraikat, controlled by militants of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra, outlawed in Russia).

One of the eyewitnesses told reporters that the harmful effects of the toxic gas could not be felt immediately:

My brother was at home, he could hear the mortar rounds exploding, but thought that nothing serious happened. However, his condition worsened two hours later, he started to choke and was taken by an ambulance vehicle.

A woman, resident of the Nil Street in the Al-Khalidiyah neighbourhood, which came under attack, said she received first aid in hospital and returned home: “However, my daughter felt unwell some time later, so me and my family had to take her to hospital.”