At least four shoolchildren were among eight people killed in Syrian regime shelling in Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, despite a ceasefire in the hunger-hit rebel enclave outside Damascus.

The bombardment came as a fresh round of peace talks to end Syria's six-year war entered a second day in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Government fire on the besieged region has been on the rise for the past week, with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor saying the latest shelling hit a school in the town of Jisreen.

“A shell fired by regime troops hit the entrance of a school in Jisreen just as children were leaving it, killing five people including four schoolchildren,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

A medical source at the town hospital confirmed the death toll and said another 25 people were wounded.

Source: Alarabiya