Residents of the Syrian city of Hama said they were holding a general strike on Sunday in memory of the dozens of people shot dead by security forces over the weekend.
On Saturday, more than 100,000 mourners turned out in Hama for funerals of 48 protesters killed the day before in the city, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
According to AFP, the London-based Observatory said security forces on Friday shot into a crowd of more than 50,000 people gathered for the city's biggest rally since protests across Syria erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in mid-March.
Meanwhile, Syrian activists said that 15 bodies were found in Hama following the crackdown. The Syrian authorities have imposed a curfew in the city and deployed tanks in its streets.
In the city of Deir al-Zour, it was reported that the demonstrations took to the street despite heavy shooting and the deployment of armored vehicles in the city, which has been cut off of electricity.
