Residents of the city of Aleppo said they were struggling to cope in a city cut off from aid and pounded by bombs, in footage from a pro-rebel media outlet said to be filmed on Thursday (September 29).

In the clip, uploaded online on Sunday (October 2), a man identified as a Free Syrian Army fighter and Aleppo resident, Abu al Yaman, said that the local area had been deserted.

"First of all, no one remains here in the area, only between two and three families are known to have remained in the area," he said.

"Also, water has been cut for a year and a half and the electricity has been cut. The raids are Russian ones, and in the last raid a barrel [bomb] went down, destroying the area. Between three and four people were killed and 30 others were injured here in the area, in the al-Ansari area," he added, referring to the Aleppo neighbourhood the video is said to be filmed in.

Yaman added that they had received no "relief bags" for five or six months.

The footage showed people chatting and cycling through streets filled with heaps of rubble and lined by damaged buildings.

Moscow and Damascus launched a campaign to recapture the rebel-held sectors of Syria's biggest city in recent weeks, abandoning a ceasefire a week after it took effect to embark on what could be the biggest battle of a nearly six-year war.

On Saturday, the largest trauma and intensive care centre in eastern Aleppo was badly damaged by air strikes and had to close. Two patients were killed.

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which partly supported the hospital, said the hospital had been hit seven times since July, with three attacks this week alone.

On Sunday the Syrian army said in a statement carried by state media that rebel fighters should vacate the eastern quarters of Aleppo city and said it would guarantee them safe passage and necessary aid.