Activists have posted a video which they say shows the bodies of 15 men who were among dozens killed in heavy government shelling of a farming village in central Syria.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had received reports of more than 150 people killed in Tremseh, though it had collected only 30 names.

Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the dead numbered more than 200, although much remains unclear about the massacre reported yesterday.

One resident, Laith al-Hamwi, said government troops were shelling the village heavily and that dozens of people had been killed.

The activist's claims could not be independently verified.