A desperate fight for life in Aleppo

The desperate fight to save a young girl shot by a sniper in Aleppo brings home the toll the conflict is taking on civilians, reports CNN's Nick Paton-Walsh. Warning: This story contains images that may distress some people.

Reporting on the Syrian conflict from the streets of Aleppo, CNN reporter Nick Paton-Walsh saw a man car carrying a limp little girl in his arms rushing towards him asking for help.

Moments of drama followed as the four-year-old girl, called Rena, was bundled into the reporter’s car and rushed to a hospital.

She was on the balcony of her home when a bullet struck from nowhere, the man explains. The bullet has hit her cheek.

At an ill-equipped rebel hospital the doctors move to clear her airway but they can't treat her properly. So they make the tough decision to send her across the frontline to a better equipped government hospital.

The next morning, the reporter learned she was taken to two government hospitals. Relatives said none of the doctors were able to remove the bullet, which was stuck in her throat. Rena later died.