DAMASCUS: At least four people were killed by a blast that ripped off the back of a bus full of Iranians at a petrol station on the outskirts of Damascus Thursday morning, doctors and witnesses said.
Doctors at the nearby Imam Khomeini hospital and police at the scene told DPA that the Iranian bus driver and three Syrian workers at the petrol station were killed in the explosion.
In remarks carried by the government’s SANA news agency, Syrian Interior Minister Said Mohammed Sammour said the explosion had been caused by a fault in an air pump used to inflate tires. He ruled out terrorist attack.
Sammour said on state-run Syrian TV that the Iranian bus driver and Syrian gas station workers were killed when a tire they were pumping air into exploded.
Witnesses reported seeing flames, but it was not immediately clear how the fire started. Police quickly cleared away the debris and the bus.
Al-Jazeera TV initially reported at least 10 people had been killed in the blast, and witnesses spoke of body parts on the ground. SANA reported only three confirmed deaths.
