United Nations inspectors who were granted access to the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus, the Syrian capital, have been targeted by an armed attack as they were heading to the site, said UN spokesman on Monday.

Speaking about the incident, the UN spokesman said that "The first vehicle of the investigation team, in a six-car convoy, was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer-zone area".

The incident took place amid the ceasefire the Syrian government had agreed to observe during the visit aimed to investigate allegations of using chemical weapons on August 22 in Damascus suburbs. According to Medecins Sans Frontieres at least 355 people died and hundreds of others were wounded in the alleged chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta.