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At least 14 ⁠people have been ⁠killed in an explosion at a temporary ⁠depot for weapons and ⁠remnants of ⁠war near Sarmada, a city in Syria’s ‌Idlib province, according to state television.

Wednesday’s blast also injured 11 people, and thick smoke from a resulting fire billowed from the site for hours.

Syria’s Defence Ministry said some of its personnel were among those injured, according to the Reuters news agency.

Earlier, the state news agency reported that emergency teams had been immediately dispatched after the explosion at Burj al-Nimra village in northern Idlib’s countryside.

However, secondary explosions hampered firefighting teams from extinguishing the fires.

Emergency teams are searching for survivors trapped under the rubble. An Associated Press news agency photographer reported seeing bodies recovered at the scene.

Authorities have not clarified what caused the explosion, but incidents like these are common in Syria, which has only recently emerged from more than 10 years of war.

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The destroyed depot was used to store weapons and munitions from the Syrian uprising and civil war, which lasted between 2011 and 2024, according to the Defence Ministry as cited by the SANA state news agency.

Earlier, on September 1, a vehicle carrying ammunition exploded in Binnish, also in Idlib province, killing five people and wounding others, according to Syrian state media.

Al Jazera