Explosion kills four in Syria

Published March 16, 2025 Updated March 16, 2025 06:32am

DAMASCUS: A blast in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia killed at least four people on Saturday, state media reported, adding that it was triggered by a scrap dealer mishandling unexploded ordnance.

“Four civilians were killed and nine injured in an explosion in a hardware store inside a four-storey building” in the city’s Al-Rimal neighbourhood, state news agency SANA said, adding that four of the injured were children.

The news agency said the blast was detonated when the scrap dealer mishandled an unexploded munition in an attempt to recover the metal.

Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also described the blast as an “accident” resulting from a resident’s attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance.

A resident of the city, Ward Jammoul, 32, said that she heard a “loud blast”, adding that she “headed to the site and found a completely destroyed building”. She said civil defence personnel and ambulances were present at the site, alongside “a large number of people who had gathered to look for those trapped under the rubble”.

An image carried by SANA showed a large plume of smoke rising over a populated neighbourhood.

A report by non-governmental organisation Humanity and Inclusion had warned last month of the dangers posed by unexploded munitions left over from the civil war.

It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025

Must Read

Ukraine, Nato and the future of Europe

Ukraine, Nato and the future of Europe

The spectacle of the verbal spat between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky in the Oval Office was stark evidence of a tectonic shift in longstanding US foreign policy on Ukraine, Russia, Europe and Nato.

Opinion

Editorial

After the review
Updated 16 Mar, 2025

After the review

Should prepare economy for durable growth by attracting foreign private investments to boost productivity and exports.
Embracing crypto
16 Mar, 2025

Embracing crypto

IT seems a little prod was all it took for Pakistan to finally ‘embrace the future’. The Pakistan Crypto Council...
Fault lines
16 Mar, 2025

Fault lines

IT was a distressing spectacle, though a sadly predictable one. As the National Assembly took up for discussion the...
Revised solar policy
Updated 15 Mar, 2025

Revised solar policy

Criticism policy revisions misplaced as these will increase payback periods for consumers with oversized solar systems.
Toxic prejudice
15 Mar, 2025

Toxic prejudice

WITH far-right movements on the march across the world, it is no surprise that anti-Muslim bias is witnessing high...
Children in jails
15 Mar, 2025

Children in jails

PAKISTAN’S children in prison have often been treated like adult criminals. The Sindh government’s programme to...