Syria has received widespread international criticism over the massacre at Houla, after the UN Security Council met on Sunday in an emergency session.

The killings saw at least 90 civilians including 34 children killed, many due to either shelling injuries, opr shot and stabbed to death.

A UN Security Council statement said that its members

"condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings... in the village of (Houla), near Homs, in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood... Such outrageous use of force against civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Joint Special Envoy for Syria Koffi Anna also released a statement saying,

"This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centres and violence in all its form."

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined the condemnation stating,

"Those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account. And the United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Asad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end.

We stand in solidarity with the Syrian people and the peaceful marchers in cities across Syria who have taken to the streets to denounce the massacre in Haoula."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has summoned the Syrian chargé d’affaires to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and commented on Saturday,

"There are credible and horrific reports that a large number of civilians have been massacred at the hands of Syrian forces in the town of Houla, including children.

Our urgent priority is to establish a full account of this appalling crime and to move swiftly to ensure that those responsible are identified and held to account. We are consulting urgently with our allies on a strong international response, including at the UN Security Council, the EU and UN Human Rights bodies. We will be calling for an urgent session of the UN Security Council in the coming days."

Speaking the BBC Hague also stated that he would be flying to Russia to meet with the Foreign Minister commenting,

"It's not in the interests of Russia, just as it's not in the interests of anybody in the world, for Syria to descend into an even bloodier situation and into full-scale civil war - and that is now the danger"

"It is a familiar tactic of the Assad regime to blame others for what is happening"

The Syrian Foreign Ministry meanwhile denied the allegations, stating, “this is not the hallmark of the heroic Syrian army” and instead blamed the attack on “armed terrorist groups”.