His tiny, terrified face covered with blood from a head wound, a baby boy is passed to medics hours after Russia declared a 'ceasefire' in Georgia.

He is still strapped in the child seat he was using when gunmen targeted his family's car as they tried to escape the fighting. The boy's three-year-old sister was also carried into a makeshift operating theatre, clasping a furry white lamb toy and crying.

This was the grim scene at Gori's town hospital last night, four hours after Russian president Dmitry Medvedev raised hopes the war was over by boasting: 'I have taken the decision to end the operation. The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses.'