Blast From Suspected Old Bomb In Syria Kills 16

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published March 16, 2025 | 10:00 AM

Damascus, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Mar, 2025) A massive explosion believed to have been triggered by a scrap dealer handling an old bomb killed at least 16 people in Syria, civil defence officials said Sunday.

The blast on Saturday in the Mediterranean city of Latakia demolished a four-storey building, ripping down slabs of concrete and crushing residents underneath chunks of their flattened homes.

Rescue officials pulled out the bodies through the night -- including five children -- as they searched for survivors.

Syria's civil defence team said 16 people had been killed "as a result of an explosion in a hardware store" in the apartment block.

"Search and rescue operations continue to recover those trapped," it added, in a post on Telegram, reporting that at least 18 people had been injured.

Images from Syria's SANA news agency showed a plume of smoke rising from Latakia's crowded southern neighbourhood of Al-Rimal, and a pile of rubble where the building had once stood.

The news agency reported that a scrap dealer had handled an unexploded munition in an attempt to recover the metal.

Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also called the explosion an "accident".