The sound of bombardment in the Syrian city of Aleppo had stopped late on Tuesday for more than an hour after a ceasefire deal was reached, a Reuters reporter said, apparently signalling an end of fighting.
Rebels agreed with Damascus's ally Russia that both sides would cease firing ahead of an evacuation of rebel fighters and some civilians from the last remaining opposition-held districts of the city, which was to begin at 5am.
Russia's UN envoy said the Syrian military had stopped its operations in Aleppo in order to allow opposition fighters to leave and the government to establish full control over the city.
An agreement was reached earlier on Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government on the evacuation of the fighters along with their families and some of the injured, ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.
"In the process of that, the military operations stopped. There is no need for military operations because they are leaving," he said.
"The bottom line is – if everything is okay – that means that the fighting around eastern Aleppo is over," Churkin said following a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in Syria's second city.
The Russian ambassador told the council that the fighters "are currently going through agreed corridors, going in directions they have chosen themselves voluntarily including towards Idlib", the rebel-controlled province.
"According to the latest information that we received in the last hour, military actions in eastern Aleppo are over, so there is no issue of some cessation of hostilities or some special humanitarian operation," he said.