More than 200 people, mainly Christians, have reportedly been rescued from Syria's second city Aleppo and taken to Belgium. A spokesman from the government in Brussels told the BBC that 240 people, including some Yezidis, had fled their homes and were at risk of repeated human rights abuse. "We did it via civil society organisations which could get them out of there," a foreign ministry spokesman said. Aleppo had a Christian population of around 160,000 before the war in Syria began, making it one of the biggest Christian communities in the Middle East. That number is now thought to be considerably smaller. The refugees were met on the Lebanese border by representatives from the Belgian embassy in Beirut and NGO workers and have now all arrived in Belgium.