BBC producer Riam Dalati reports that some ambulances transporting seriously ill people from rebel-held Aleppo are close to crossing the border with Turkey, where they will receive hospital treatment.

Aleppo is only 33km (20 miles) east of the frontier, although the drive to the rebel-held Bab al-Hawa crossing in Idlib province is about 54km (33 miles).

The pro-opposition Aleppo Media Centre has posted what it says are aerial photos showing the convoy of buses and ambulances preparing to evacuate people from rebel-held Aleppo.

Syrian state TV reports that 29 buses and ambulances are on the way to two pro-government, Shia towns in Idlib province that have been besieged by rebel forces for more than a year and a half. 

The evacuation of wounded people from Foah and Kefraya was a condition introduced by the government and its allies as part of the Aleppo ceasefire deal. 

An official in a pro-government military alliance told the Reuters news agency that some 15,000 people would be allowed to leave the two towns - the same as the number being evacuated from Aleppo to rebel-held areas in Idlib. 

"We are working day and night, literally, to try and guarantee the protection of civilians, first of all in east Aleppo," says the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

She says she has just spoken to the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, urging Iran and Russia - both close allies of the Syrian government - to "uphold their responsibilities to protect civilians in these hours".

Image source, AFP

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency has posted these photos of civilians waiting to be evacuated from rebel-held Aleppo.

Opposition activist Monther Etaky (pictured) and freelance journalist Zouhir al-Shimale both tell the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that they expect to leave with the rebels and head to the countryside in Idlib province.

“We can’t evacuate with the civilians, we have to go with the rebels, all of us,” says Mr Etaky.

A Syrian in London, Haid Haid, tells the programme about the uncertainty facing his sister, who is also in rebel-held east Aleppo.

“They’re waiting and they don’t know what will happen. Everyone is basically scared for their lives, because if this doesn’t go through then they will definitely die in a matter of hours - because the regime is closing down and there’s no way out. The regime will take revenge against those people," Mr Haid says.

“Until now, they were not told when they will be evacuated or where to. The uncertainty of what will happen is the most difficult thing, especially when you have a baby.

The Tass news agency now has more, external on the Russian military's reported announcement that the evacuations have begun. 

It quotes the chief of the Russian military's General Staff, Gen Valery Gerasimov, as telling a news briefing: "At the decision of Russia's commander-in-chief, President Vladimir Putin the evacuation of 5,000 militants and their families from eastern Aleppo began on Thursday." 

"A humanitarian corridor has been created for the evacuation of militants. This corridor is 21 kilometres long. Six kilometres lie across Aleppo's territories controlled by government troops and another 15 kilometres through territories in the hands of illegal armed groups."

Twenty passenger buses and 10 ambulances were being used for the operation, the general said. Some rebels were using their own vehicles, which numbered 100, he added.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirms that the first batch of injured people are now being evacuated from rebel-held Aleppo.  

The BBC Arabic's Assaf Abboud, who is in the government-controlled Ramousseh district, says about 15,000 people are expected to leave rebel-held Aleppo. 

Some of those evacuated will be taken to the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, about 8km (5 miles) south-west of Aleppo. The rest will be taken in buses and ambulances further west to the province of Idlib, most of which is controlled by rebel forces. 

Our correspondent says he can see smoke still rising from the rebel enclave. Government sources told him that the rebels were burning documents so they could not be recovered by the security services.

As for the civilians there, the government sources added, they would be allowed to choose whether to leave or remain.

Russia's defence ministry has announced the start of the evacuation of 5,000 rebels and their family members from eastern Aleppo, the Russian news agency Tass reports.

Ambulances are waiting inside rebel-held east Aleppo to evacuate the first batch of injured people - including this boy with a head wound.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The Russian defence ministry's live video stream, external from the government-controlled, south-western Ramousseh district also shows that the buses waiting there earlier have departed.

The Reuters news agency says one of its employees has seen ambulances began to move towards the rebel-held area of Aleppo.

Russia's defence ministry has said the buses will take the injured, civilians and rebel fighters to the neighbouring province of Idlib, most of which is controlled by rebel forces.

Those being evacuated are said to be gathering in the rebel-held Amiriyeh district.

A military media unit run by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, whose fighters have supported government forces in the battle for Aleppo, has said the buses will leave Aleppo on the road through the government-controlled south-western district of Ramousseh. They will then head to the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, about 8km (5 miles) away. 

Turkey, which is already home to more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees, has said it will set up a tent city to accommodate up to 80,000 people from Aleppo. It has not said whether the camps will be inside Turkey or in northern Syria.

Image source, AFP

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed it will be involved in the evacuations, along with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC). 

The ICRC says 100 SARC volunteers and ICRC staff are involved. 

Some are pictured below, waiting outside the buses that will be used.

Image source, AFP

Demonstrators in many cities around the world have held protests and vigils in recent days in solidarity with the people of Aleppo.

In Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were turned off on Wednesday.

Image source, AP

UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland has said he is hopeful about the evacuation of civilians from Aleppo taking place. 

"We are now receiving information from the Russians that they would indeed want us to participate in the evacuation, but confirmation only seems to come now, this morning, which is very late, because it is already ongoing and there have already been security incidences," he told the Reuters news agency in Geneva. 

"Thousands of people are in need of evacuation, but the first and most urgent thing is wounded, sick and children, including orphans," he said. "I am really hopeful because it's long, long overdue."

Image source, AP

"The people in Aleppo feel the same way we did," says Hasan Hasanovic, a survivor of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces. It left some 8,000 men and boys dead, and was the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War Two.

While the circumstances in Aleppo differ from those in Srebrenica, there is anger among Bosnian survivors that not enough has been done by international powers to protect civilians who are once again in the firing line.

"We keep repeating 'Never again' but when it comes to action, we don't do anything to prevent those things from happening," Mr Hasanovic told the BBC's Hugo Bachega.

Read the full story here

Syrian state TV reports that 4,000 fighters and their families will be evacuated from eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, saying that the city will soon be "declared a zone free of weapons and fighters".

It shows footage of a line of green buses parked in what it said was the southern Aleppo district of Ramouseh.

They have not mentioned, however, reports that a convoy of ambulances tried to leave the city but was shot at and had to return.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Russian soldiers are reportedly preparing to lead rebels out of Syria's largest city of Aleppo under orders from President Vladimir Putin, according to the Russian Defence Ministry cited by Russian state news agencies. 

Syrian authorities have guaranteed the safety of rebels and their families who will be evacuated towards Idlib, north of Aleppo, with drones monitoring the transport of rebels and their families on 20 buses, accompanied by 10 ambulances, the ministry says.

The BBC's Moscow Correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, says that the phrasing "on the orders of President Putin" is significant, apparently underlining the country's commitment to the deal.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Russian air power has helped Syria's government forces - an alliance that has been crucial in Mr Assad's efforts to retake rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

Our correspondent says the agreement appears to have emerged after a conversation on Wednesday between Mr Putin and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.