BRUSSELS (AP) — Aleppo's mayor has appealed to European Union leaders to send monitors to help ensure the safety of thousands of civilians trying to flee the besieged Syrian city.

Brita Hagi Hasan said that "we want a courageous position from the European Union, a position of sending of sending some forces to monitor the evacuation of civilians."

Speaking outside EU headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, he said "we never asked any country to go to war ... we only ask to save civilians and secure some corridors for their evacuation."

The mayor said more than 800 wounded people in eastern Aleppo need evacuating urgently, and that more than 5,000 others hurt should also leave.

He warned that 50,000 civilians in eastern Aleppo "are about to be victims of a general massacre."