Nearly 10,000 civilians have fled battered eastern Aleppo towards government-held districts and the Kurdish-controlled neighbourhood of Sheikh Maksoud, a monitor said Sunday.

"Nearly 10,000 civilians have fled east Aleppo since the night of Saturday to Sunday," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "At least 6,000 of them went to the neighbourhood of Sheikh Maksoud, the rest went to government zones of Aleppo."