'Please save us': Aleppo girl tells Twitter she’s scared

A seven-year-old girl in Aleppo, whose Twitter account has been documenting the horrors of the war in the devastated city, said in a video posted by British novelist JK Rowling that she fears being killed.

Bana Alabed made headlines last month with tweets thanking the Harry Potter author for sending her e-copies of her books.

“I am afraid. How are you? I am on the run now… Please save us. Thank you,” Alabed pleads in the video, which was shared by Rowling’s Twitter account on Friday.

Alabed is a resident of east Aleppo, which is facing a government offensive to capture rebel-held neighbourhoods.

More than 300 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in east Aleppo since forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad began their assault on 15 November, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Many of Rowling’s followers reacted sympathetically to the video, asking what they can do to help Bana and her family. However, the tweet spurred political debate about the situation in Syria, with some users claiming that Bana’s account is a “propaganda” tool for rebels.

"Thank you for using your name to help raise awareness on what is happening in Syria and to Bana's family and others," one Twitter user told Rowling.

On Wednesday, Alabed’s account tweeted at US President Barack Obama, asking if he can do anything to get her family away from the violence.

Last week, Alabed tweeted a message to the Harry Potter author to tell her that she had started reading the book, as well as photos of herself reading them to her two younger brothers. A few hours later, Bana tweeted an image of the body of a young girl she said had been killed in a bomb attack.

“We give up on life,” Alabed wrote on Thursday.