Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Three dead, including a boy of 13 years, is the death toll from an explosion at a gas station in Damascus. The accident occurred yesterday morning at 8.30 local time and involved a bus of Shiite pilgrims from Iran, direct to the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab. The Syrian authorities exclude the hypothesis of an attack and say that the it was caused by an explosion of a tire; local witnesses voiced doubts on the reconstruction provided by the police.
Minister of Interior, Sammour Said, explained that "following investigation, we have found no explosives or signs of a terrorist attack" He confirms the reconstruction of the Syrian security forces: "The Iranian coaches came to inflate a tire," which then "exploded" because of "excessive pressure".
Two of the victims worked in the service station where the accident occurred. Among these was the 13-year-old boy. The third is the driver of the vehicle, who had approached to survey the inflation of the rubber. At first there was talk of five or six dead, including some pilgrims.
Local sources speak of "great confusion" in the reconstruction of the dynamics and do not believe the version of an accident. The blast was too strong to be attributed to the bursting of a tire. One witness interviewed by Afp added that the "several ambulances and police cars" came to site and "completely isolated the area."
That of yesterday is not the first incident to befall Shiite pilgrims to the shrine dedicated to the grandson of Muhammad. In September 2008, a car bomb hit a security complex near the airport in Damascus, killing 17 people. The gesture was attributed to a Lebanese extremist group affiliated with al Qaeda.