An assessment team of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have concluded that there are currently acute humanitarian needs in the city of Homs of Syria, UNHCR chief spokesperson Melissa Fleming said on Friday.

Some 250,000 people had been registered as being displaced in and around Homs while thousands of them were living in unheated communal shelters, Fleming said.

She added that there were also severe shortages of basic supplies ranging from medicine to blankets, winter clothes and children's shoes.

Half of the city's hospitals were not functional and 60 percent of doctors in Homs had left, along with other medical personnel, she said.

As cold weather is arriving, "it's very very worrying situation," she said.

UNHCR had distributed aid packages of urgent winter assistance to 5,000 displaced families in Homs to date, and it planed to further scale up the winter response with more deliveries of heavy blankets, quilts and mattresses, she said. Endi

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