Asma al-Assad denies leaving Syria

Asma al-Assad, Syria's first lady, has dismissed claims she fled the war-hit country.

The British-educated Mrs Assad has rarely appeared in public since the beginning of the civil war.

But on Tuesday, hours after her husband attended prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast in Damascus, Syrian state television broadcast a clip of the first lady.

The mini-feature showed her comforting the bereaved and planting olive trees with children, dressed in black trousers and a grey T-shirt with the Syrian flag on the front.

"I am here, my husband and my children are here in Syria. It's obvious that I'd be here with them," she said, when asked of claims that she had left the country.

"How can I teach my children to love Syria if they don't live here?" she added with a smile.

"I was here yesterday, I'm here today and I will be here tomorrow."

It was not clear where or when the footage was recorded.

In September, Mrs Assad posted a series of photographs on her Instagram account, in which she posed with a series of students who had achieved excellent results in their exams.

Mrs Assad, born in Acton, west London, was an investment banker known as Emma when she met her husband – who was training as an eye surgeon in Britain. The couple married in 2000.