At least 60,000 people have been killed in fighting in Syria since protests against President Bashar al-Assad began nearly two years ago, the United Nations said in its first detailed analysis of deaths so far.

“The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement e-mailed from Geneva today.

The analysis took five months to complete, and is based on a list of reported killings that include full names, as well as the date and location of each death. Any report containing insufficient information was excluded.

To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net