DAMASCUS -- A powerful explosion rocked the southern Raml neighborhood in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Saturday, state-run news agency SANA reported. The cause of the blast remained unknown, and there were no immediate official reports on casualties or damage.

The death toll from a powerful explosion on Saturday that rocked the city of Latakia on the Syrian coast has risen to eight, including three women and a girl. Fourteen were injured, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

A massive explosion believed to have been triggered by a scrap dealer handling an old bomb killed at least 16 people in Syria, civil defence officials said Sunday.The blast on Saturday in the Mediterranean city of Latakia demolished a four-storey building,

Bashir Saadi, Deputy Head of the Assyrian Democratic Organization, stated that “the number of Christian deaths in the coastal events was four,” but he blamed “remnants of the Syrian regime” for fueling the escalation, arguing that they were the biggest beneficiaries of the chaos.

The number of people killed by exploding war remnants in a shop in the Syrian city of Latakia on Saturday has risen to eight.

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 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.