Death toll from Latakia explosion in Syria rises to 16

DAMASCUS, March 17 (YPA) – About 16 people, including five women and five children, were killed and 18 others wounded in the Saturday explosion that targeted the Ramla neighborhood in the coastal city of Latakia of Syria.

The Syrian Civil Defense announced on Sunday in a statement that explosion in the Ramla neighborhood, inhabited by displaced Palestinian families, also led to the complete collapse of a four-story residential building.

The statement added that the rescue operations had been continued to extract those trapped under the rubble.

It announced that the cause of the explosion was the dismantling of a missile or explosives in a scrap yard under the building.

AA