Updated June 09, 2012 12:48:28
The United Nations says its monitors have made it into the Syrian village of Qubair and are trying to compile a list of who was killed in a massacre there earlier this week.
More than 20 unarmed UN observers were allowed into Al-Kubeir on Friday after they were shot at and prevented from entering the village on Thursday.
They say the village is deserted and carries the marks of an horrific crime.
They have found burnt buildings, dead animals and human remains but no bodies.
The monitors are unable to confirm the number killed or missing from the village. It has a population of about 150, but the opposition Syrian National Council has put the death toll at 78.
The UN's Sausan Ghosheh says there are signs of death everywhere.
"You can smell the smell of dead bodies and you can also see body parts," he said.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky says the observers saw armoured vehicle tracks and homes that were damaged by rockets, grenades and various weapons.
"Inside some of the houses, blood was visible across the walls and floors," he said in a grim account of the visit.
"Fire was still burning outside houses and there was a strong stench of burnt flesh."
Mr Nesirky says people from a nearby village came "and spoke of what they had heard and the relatives they had lost".
"Armored vehicle tracks were visible in the vicinity. Some homes were damaged by rockets from armoured vehicles, grenades and a range of calibre weapons," he said.
"The circumstances surrounding this attack are still unclear. The names, details and number of those killed are still not confirmed. The observers are still working to ascertain the facts."
Activists have blamed Shabiha militias from a pro-government village nearby, while president Bashar al-Assad's regime accuses terrorists.
Qubair is a Sunni farming enclave of some 150 people circled by Alawite villages in the central province of Hama, according the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
BBC journalist Paul Danahar is travelling with the UN convoy and has described a hellish scene inside the village.
Men here told us that after the killings had taken place a pick-up truck arrived with men in civilian clothes and took the bodies away.
Another man told us that sticks had been used to kill children. He showed us one stick and there was blood still on the end of it.
It looks like any evidence has been cleared away. It is an appalling scene. I mean this has basically been a scorched earth policy by whoever has done this.
They've killed the people, they've killed the livestock. They've left nothing in the village alive.
The people are gone and the only thing that says that they were there is pieces of brain on the floor and blood congealed in the corner. Something very terrible happened here.

BBC reporter Paul Danahar
Elsewhere across Syria the violence has continued, with activists reporting dozens of deaths across six different provinces.
The Red Cross now says 1.5 million Syrians are are in need of relief aid because of the conflict.
At least 12 people, including eight women, were killed by Syrian army fire in the southern flashpoint town of Daraa overnight on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The killings took place in a residential part of the town where the revolt against the Assad regime originated, the British-based observatory said in a statement.
The toll came on top of 26 fatalities nationwide on Friday as fighting between regime troops and rebels intensified, particularly in the capital Damascus, the observatory said.
UN special envoy Kofi Annan has said his peace plan is not working and there must be "consequences" for those who do not comply.
He has met with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to try and salvage the plan.
In New York, US, French and British officials are reportedly working on a Security Council resolution proposing new sanctions against the Assad regime.
It could also open the door to military intervention, something that Russia and China have already rejected.
US Treasury official David Cohen has said that financial sanctions are having an impact despite Russian opposition.
"We will continue to work with the Russians to try and make sure that our sanctions programs are as effective as possible," he said.
"The Russians have long-standing economic interests in Syria and to the extent that those economic relations undermine the effectiveness of the sanctions program that's something that we're concerned about."
ABC/wires
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, syrian-arab-republic
First posted June 09, 2012 12:34:51