BEIRUT: Hundreds of civilians were evacuated Sunday from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, braving gunmen spraying bullets and lobbing mortar shells to flee as part of a rare three-day truce to relieve a choking blockade. Dozens were wounded as they fled.

The cease-fire came as Syrian officials arrived in Switzerland for a new round of talks with opposition activists-in-exile to try to negotiate an end to Syria’s three-year conflict.

More than 600 people were evacuated from Homs on Sunday, said Gov. Talal Barrazi. The operation was part of a UN-mediated truce that began Friday between the government of President Bashar Assad and armed rebels to allow thousands of women, children and elderly men to leave opposition-held parts of the city, and to permit the entry of food and supplies.

Forces loyal to Assad have blockaded rebel-held parts of Homs for over a year, causing widespread hunger and suffering.

Dozens of people were wounded when they came under fire as they waited at an agreed-upon evacuation point in the rebel-held neighborhood of Al-Qarabis, according to three activists based in Homs, who spoke to AP by Skype.

Despite the gunfire and exploding mortar shells, hundreds of women, children and elderly men ran toward a group of Red Crescent workers waiting less than a mile away, said an activist who gave his name as Samer Al-Homsy.

“Our life was a disaster, we had no food, no water,” one distressed woman said.

“There was nothing, my children are all sick. They were thirsty,” she said, standing with a group of exhausted-looking children as khaki-clad Syrian soldiers, Red Crescent workers in red jump suits and UN workers in blue protective vests gathered around the buses.

Some evacuees were to be hosted in government-run shelters, others were going to join relatives in safer areas, while still others said they did not know where they were going.

Meanwhile, extremists who overran a village in central Syria populated by the Alawite minority have killed at least 40 people, activists said Monday.

Half of the victims in Sunday’s attack were civilians, including women, while the other half were village fighters defending their homes in Maan in the province of Hama, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Alawite residents of Maan were particularly despised, with activists accusing them of killing residents in the neighboring Sunni village of Fan Al-Shamali in 2012.