Syrian security forces have fired bullets and tear gas at pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 75 people, according to activists.
They said dozens of victims included a young boy in the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime.
The protests, held every Friday, have become weekly bloodbaths as security forces try to crush the demonstrations.
But the mounting death tolls have only served to invigorate the protest movement whose demands have snowballed from modest reforms to the downfall of the 40-year Assad dynasty.
This Friday tens of thousands of people protested in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the central cities of Hama and Homs, Latakia and Banias on the coast, the northern cities of Raqqa and Idlib, the north-eastern Kurdish region, and the southern province of Daraa.
As the protesters dispersed, the scope of the bloodshed began to emerge.
Human rights groups believe more than 250 people have been killed over the last five weeks.
"Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain," said one witness in Izraa, a southern village in Daraa province, the region where the uprising kicked off in mid-March.
Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights, said this Friday's death toll had reached 49 and at least 20 people were reported missing. Activists later said the death toll was at least 75.
The protest movement has been the gravest challenge against the autocratic regime led by Mr Assad, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago in one of the most rigidly controlled countries in the Middle East.
