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Reports and images of the incident spread rapidly on Twitter and other social networks but were impossible to verify independently given the lack of media access to much of Syria.
Online pictures showed charred corpses lying amid rubble and a dead child who had apparently been shot in the face.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an activist network, had earlier reported shelling in al-Qubair and neighbouring Maazarif, with "dozens martyred and wounded." The villages are about 12 miles from Hama.
Opposition activists said women and children were among the dead when al-Qubair came under heavy tank fire before shabiha fighters moved in on the ground and shot and stabbed dozens of people to death. The LCC counted 78 victims, 35 of whom were said to be from one family.
"Qubair was stormed with very heavy and random gunfire, houses were broken into and the residents were killed, some with knives," said a Hama-based source. "There are also burnt bodies."
Syrian state TV said troops had attacked "terrorists" - the phrase the official media uses for any opposition, armed or peaceful, to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Comment: No, in this case, the term correctly applies to Western mercenaries terrorising Syrians!
Russian Journalist Exposes Propaganda Lies about Houla Massacre
The news came as international efforts to deal with the Syrian crisis appeared to have stalled after Russia and China again made clear their opposition to any kind of outside intervention after 15 months of bloodshed, an estimated 15,000 dead and a de facto civil war. Both countries have vetoed UN security council resolutions designed to pressure Assad.
Attention has focused sharply on Syria since at least 108 people were killed in a two-day massacre that began on 25 May near Houla, most of them women and children who were summarily executed, according to the UN. The incidents have underscored the failure of a ceasefire brokered by the UN envoy Kofi Annan in March. Annan is to brief the UN security council on Thursday in New York.
Members of the 300-strong force of UN monitors in Syria are likely to investigate the al-Qubair incident.
"If their mission is to merely watch Syrian people die during breaches of the ceasefire, rather than helping in stopping any breaches by being physically on the ground, then we do not require their help," said the SOHR.
Earlier, ministers and officials from 15 countries and the EU agreed at a meeting hosted by Turkey to convene a new "co-ordination group" to provide support to the Syrian opposition, but left unclear what it might involve.
Annan is said to be hoping to stop a total collapse of his six-point plan for a truce and negotiated political solution. Diplomats say he will be reluctant to admit it has failed in the absence of any viable alternative. Western governments have shown no appetite for Libyan-style military intervention outside the UN though there are increasing calls in the US to arm the anti-Assad rebels of the Free Syrian Army. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are thought to be already doing so.
The time is now ripe it seems. For those who remember, we had been given hints that something could happen early summer. Well we're nearing it, don't we ? It could very well be that the Kofi Annan's plan has bought enough time for all of the field pieces to be put into the ready for action then.
Indeed, how are we to otherwise interpret that the parties' respective diplomats still on post have just been ordered to pack? And now, how are we to explain those almost weekly false flags ?