Unconfirmed reports from Syria say two Western journalists have been killed in the central city of Homs.

Activists said an American and a French national had died after a shell hit a makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr area, which has come under bombardment.

Several other people were also killed and wounded, the activists added.

More than 100 people were reportedly killed across the country on Tuesday, including more than 40 in Homs as troops attacked opposition strongholds.

Some put the death toll in the north-western province of Idlib even higher.

A new video posted online by activists in Idlib suggests opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have been victims of summary executions.

It shows residents of the village of Abdita looking at a row of dead bodies, with bullet wounds in their heads and their hands bound.

State media said security forces had been operating in the area, pursuing "armed terrorist gangs" and that a number had been killed.

Two Western journalists have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs when shells hit the building they were staying in, opposition activists say.

France named them as Marie Colvin, an American Sunday Times reporter, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer.

Several other people were reportedly killed when the shell hit the makeshift media centre in the Baba Amr area.

Opposition-held districts have been under siege by security forces for more than two weeks, leaving hundreds dead.

Activists said more than 40 people died on Tuesday, including Rami al-Sayed, a man who broadcast a live video stream from Homs used by world media.

Mr Sayed was fatally wounded by shrapnel during the shelling of Baba Amr. His brother posted a video of his body in a makeshift hospital.

The Red Cross has called on the government and rebels to agree to a daily ceasefire, to allow medical supplies to reach the worst affected areas and get civilians out, but there is no sign yet of this being agreed.

Undercover

Ms Colvin and Mr Ochlik were reportedly staying in a house in Baba Amr that was being used by activists as a media centre when it was hit by a shell on Wednesday morning.

Rockets were also said to have hit the building's garden when people tried to flee afterwards.

At least three other foreign journalists were wounded, activists said.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the deaths would be investigated.

"It's another demonstration of the degradation of the situation in Syria and of a repression that is more and more intolerable," he told reporters.

"I hope that on Friday at the 'Friends of Syria' meeting in Tunis we will be able to move towards a peaceful solution of the situation."

UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote on Twitter: "Tragic news about Marie Colvin, a brave woman and an excellent journalist. Thoughts are with her family and friends."

There was no immediate comment from the Sunday Times or Mr Ochlik's Paris-based photo agency, IP3 Press.

Mr Ochlik, 28, had reported from Haiti and covered many of the recent uprisings in the Arab world.

Ms Colvin, in her 50s, had been a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times for two decades, and had reported from several war zones. She lost the sight in one eye in Sri Lanka in 2001 after being hit by shrapnel.

On Tuesday, she told the BBC the bombardment of Baba Amr had been "unrelenting".

Source;bbc