Children evacuated to safety

A little boy is driven away from his home as South Ossetia evacuates it's children to Russia for safety.

People in this breakaway region of Georgia believe Georgian forces are targeting citizens in shootouts and are terrified.

Hundreds of women and children queued for buses as fears grew the attacks could turn into a full scale war.

This is where some took their families to sleep to stay out of the way of gun attacks in the past 24 hours.

SOUNDBITE: Unidentified Tskhinvali resident, saying: (Russian)

"My son doesn't sleep at night. He is even afraid of thunder. There was thunder yesterday and he was so scared. We have to leave. I'm leaving with a sad heart. I don't know what will happen to my relatives and dear ones. I leave behind my brother, father and mother. But we have to go."

A thousand people strong rally was held in neighbouring North Ossetia in support of the southern neighbour.

The North Ossetian president addressed protesters describing Georgian attacks as "savage barbarian actions ".

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia after a bloody war in the early 1990s.

Russia has sent peacekeeping troops which it says are needed to avert another all-out war.

But Georgia's government wants them replaced by an international force.

Georgia accuses Moscow of seeking to annex South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.

Russia in turn accuses Georgia of stoking the conflict as a pretext to re-take both by force.