Two bombs exploded this Tuesday morning in Damascus, near the hotel where Emmanuel Macron spent the night, according to a security source at AFP.
Two explosions occurred this Tuesday morning in the center of Damascus, near the hotel where Emmanuel Macron spent the night, according to a security source at AFP. The President of the Republic is making the first visit by a leader of a Western power to Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the coming to power at the end of 2024 of an Islamist coalition. Witnesses saw smoke rising from an area near the Four Seasons hotel where the French president spent the night in central Damascus, and which he left in the morning for talks at the presidential palace. The Élysée announced that the president is safe and sound and his visit continues.
Several injured including police officers
A first assessment shows “18 injured including four police officers” following two explosions caused by “two homemade bombs, the first placed inside a car parked on the side of the road; the second, in a dumpster”according to the Syrian Interior Ministry.
“I saw three injured members of the security forces lying on the ground”reports a witness to AFP. Several other witnesses saw smoke rising from the neighborhood after the French leader left his hotel and went to the presidential palace, where he spoke with his counterpart Ahmad al-Chareh.
Security forces discovered the bombs which exploded as they attempted to dismantle them, according to an Interior Ministry source, cited by the Syrian news agency SANA.
The explosions were not heard since the presidential procession, according to two journalists from AFP who were part of it. Other AFP journalists saw traces of blood on the sidewalk and metal fragments near the hotel.
Opposite, windows of the Ministry of Tourism were broken by the explosions. Security forces were deployed in force at the scene and barred access to the press while ambulances headed to the scene.
