A blast in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia killed at least three people on Saturday, state media reported, with a war monitor saying it was triggered by unexploded ordnance.”The blast in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured,” state news agency SANA said citing provincial authorities.It added that “civil defence teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing”.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor later described the blast as an “accident” resulting from a resident’s attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance in the building.A resident of the city, Ward Jammoul, 32, told AFP 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 devastating civil war that erupted in 2011.It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.
A blast in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia killed at least three people on Saturday, state media reported, with a war monitor saying it was triggered by unexploded ordnance.”The blast in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured,” state news agency SANA said citing provincial authorities.It added that “civil defence teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing”.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor later described the blast as an “accident” resulting from a resident’s attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance in the building.A resident of the city, Ward Jammoul, 32, told AFP 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 devastating civil war that erupted in 2011.It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.
