DAMASCUS: At least five children were killed in firing on a school in the southern Syrian city of Daraa on Tuesday, state media said.

“Five children were killed and 15 wounded in terrorist shelling of a primary school in the Al-Sahary neighbourhood of Daraa,” state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, also reported the rocket fire on the school, saying at least six people had been killed, five of them children.

It said that at least 25 people were wounded in the attack, and that the death toll was likely to rise because a number of the wounded were in critical condition.

Militants control most of Daraa province, but the provincial capital is largely controlled by the government.

Daraa is sometimes dubbed the “cradle” of the insurgency President Bashar al-Assad that began with protests in the province in March 2011.