The United Nations has said the death toll in seven months of protests in Syria against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad has reached 3,000.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said at least 187 children were among the dead and that 100 people had died in the past 10 days alone.
The UN also says hundreds of Syrians have been arrested.
Ms Pillay warned that Syria’s “ruthless repression” threatened “full-blown civil war”.
The government in Damascus blames armed “terrorist gangs” for the trouble, and says 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.
Resolution vetoed
Ms Pillay said: “The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner.”
UN spokesman Rupert Colville added that hundreds of Syrians had been detained and tortured or had disappeared.
He said that families who supported the opposition had been targeted by the Syrian government both inside the country and abroad.
A European-drafted UN resolution threatening “measures” against the Syrian regime if it did not end its repression of the protests was vetoed this month by China and Russia.
But both Beijing and Moscow have also recently urged Damascus to adopt promised reforms swiftly – a sign, correspondents say, that they too may be losing patience with the Assad government.
Mr Colville said that the diplomatic moves so far were “not producing results and people continue to be killed every single day”.
He added: “Just hoping things will get better isn’t good enough, clearly.”
In its reports of violence from Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said that at least 36 people had been killed, including 25 soldiers.
The worst violence was in the north-western town of Banash.
It said there were also deaths in Daraa, south of Damascus, and the central city of Homs, which has been one of the biggest flashpoints of the uprising.
Although there has been some trouble in its suburbs, Damascus has not been so greatly affected.
Thousands of people rallied in the capital on Wednesday to back the president.
