Crying men and women have rushed to the Damascus hospital morgue in search of their missing relatives who disappeared during the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Dozens of disfigured, decomposing corpses were found by rescuers hunting for hidden prison cells inside Sednaya, Assad’s most notorious jail, which was liberated by Syrian rebels as his regime collapsed on Sunday.

After the rebels took Damascus, reports quickly emerged of underground cells existing underneath the prison, which was once described by Amnesty International as a “human slaughterhouse”. None were found.

Torture devices, including body-crushing iron presses and red ropes, were found scattered throughout the complex instead, where thousands of civilians were abused and killed.