IDLIB: At least 14 people have been killed and 11 wounded after an explosion at a temporary weapons depot near the city of Sarmada in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, according to Syrian state television.
The facility was being used to store weapons, ammunition and remnants of war before they were moved elsewhere. Syria’s Defence Ministry said some of its personnel were among those affected, while emergency teams and Civil Defence crews were sent to secure the area and search through the rubble.
The cause of the blast has not yet been established. Earlier reports put the death toll considerably lower, but the number of fatalities rose as rescue teams continued working at the scene. Video and photographs from the area showed heavy smoke, while secondary explosions were reported as stored munitions continued to detonate.
The explosion occurred in the Burj al-Nimra area near Sarmada, close to the Turkish border. Idlib contains large quantities of weapons and unexploded ordnance left from more than a decade of conflict, and similar incidents involving ammunition stores have occurred previously in the province.