The United Nations Security Council has concluded an emergency meeting about the apparent chemical attack in the Eastern suburbs Damascus.

The UN Security Council members are backing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for “a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation” of allegations of chemical weapons use outside the Syrian capital that various sources claim killed anywhere from 200 to 1,400 people.  The Syrian government denies it is responsible.

There are reports the US wanted to Security Council to adopt a much more specific measure about the investigation, but was blocked by Russia and China.

Whatever that attack was, and whomever carried it out, it coincided with the visit to Syria by a 20-member UN chemical weapons team.  But that group only has a mandate to investigate three previous allegations of chemical weapons use.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague believes the inspectors mandate should be expanded to include today’s attack, saying that he hopes “that it will be made clear that the UN team now in Damascus will have unrestricted access to the area concerned and the United Kingdom will be raising this at the United Nations Security Council.”

French Foreign minister Laurent Fabius said that if verified, the attack east of Damascus would be an “unprecedented atrocity.”

A White House spokesman said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria is, “totally deplorable and complete unacceptable”.

US President Obama has in the past said that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would cross a “red line” that restrains deeper American involvement in the Syrian Civil War.