PHOTO: EPA/SANA

Syrian government forces have captured a key part of eastern Aleppo, splitting rebel-held territory in two, the reports.

State TV said government troops were dismantling mines and explosives and continuing their advance.

A monitoring group says the rebels have now lost more than a third of the previously rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Thousands of civilians have fled the besieged districts after a weekend of heavy fighting. Hundreds of families have been displaced within the area.

Both state TV and the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the district of Sakhour had fallen to the Syrian army.

This cuts through the middle of the previously rebel-held territory, dividing it into two.