DAMASCUS: Two blasts near a school in the government-controlled central Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday killed at least 18 people, mostly children, and wounded 40 others, state news agency SANA reported.

“Two terrorist explosions near the Akrameh al-Makhzumi school and the Zaim hospital caused deaths and injuries,” said state television.

Both the official news agency SANA and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the attacks, and said one of them had been caused by a car bomb.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported the same toll in the double bombing in the Akrameh neighbourhood of Homs.

The group said the toll could rise as body parts were still being collected from the scene and several of the wounded were in serious condition.

The blasts hit the Akrameh neighbourhood of Homs, which is home to a majority of Alawites, members of the same sect of Shiite Islam to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.