At least four killed as Iranian bus explodes in Damascus (2nd Lead)

Dec 3, 2009, 9:56 GMT

Damascus - At least four people were killed when a bus full of Iranian pilgrims exploded at a petrol station on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday morning, police and doctors said.

Doctors at the nearby Imam Khomeini hospital and police at the scene told the German Press Agency dpa that the Iranian bus driver and three Syrian workers at the petrol station were killed in the blast, which took place near the shrine to the Shiite saint Sayeda Zainab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed.

The number of confirmed casualties was likely to rise, they said. The bus was full of Iranian pilgrims on their way to visit the shrine, witnesses said.

It was initially unclear if the explosion was an accident or the result of a bomb.

'The back of the bus was completely destroyed, and its entire frame was damaged,' one witness, who gave his name only as Mazen, told dpa.

Al-Jazeera TV reported at least 10 people had been killed in the blast.

A nurse at Imam Khomeini hospital said the blast had smashed windows in the hospital and had damaged one of the building's walls.

Local shopkeeper Abu Khaled al-Husseini said most of the shops in the neighbourhood had not yet opened, but that he saw the commotion because he was busy cleaning the shop and preparing to receive customers.

Emergency workers tended to the injured whilst police began an investigation of the cause of the explosion. The Syrian Minister of Interior Said Mohammed Sammur arrived at the scene soon after the blast.

The district is a common pilgrimage site for Iranian Shiite Muslims. A blast in the same district left 17 people dead last September.

Thursday's explosion took place soon after Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the country's nuclear negotiator, arrived in Damascus for talks with top Syrian officials.