A sorry tale from Syria

A man who was presumed dead after the bombing of a busy marketplace in Syria has woken up and returned home to walk in on his own funeral.

Mohammed Rayhan was stood in the marketplace at Douma, near Damascus, on Sunday when it was shelled by government forces.

The latest death toll from the attack – and a subsequent air raid while bodies were still being recovered – stands at 117, including 16 children and seven women, activists say.

Rayhan's family believed after he failed to come home from the market that he was among that number, and began mourning him that day.

But on Tuesday morning, around 36 hours after the bombing, Rayhan woke up, escaped the rubble and made his way home – with dust still covering his hair and beard.

Wakes typically last three days – and according to Middle East Eye, Rayhan arrived just in time to interrupt the final day of his own.

While Rayhan's story sounds extraordinary, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it is the sort of thing that “happens many times in Syria now”.

“Lots of people go missing, get lost in rubble, and only turn up later,” Rami Abdurrahman, the activist group's director, told The Independent.

Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations yesterday to impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government after air strikes on a rebel town near the capital killed more than 100 people.

The New York-based group said the Sunday attack on Douma showed the government's "appalling disregard for civilians".