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Syrian authorities said 18 people were wounded by two blasts in central Damascus on Tuesday near the hotel where France’s president spent the night, with the Élysée Palace saying his visit is ongoing.
The blasts came moments before Syrian state television announced Emmanuel Macron’s arrival to the presidential palace to meet his counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The French president, the first Western leader to visit Syria since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024, will continue his visit, Paris said.
The Syrian interior ministry said that “18 people, including four police officers, were injured” as a result of the two explosions caused by “two improvised devices, the first of which was placed inside a car parked on the side of the road, while the second was placed inside a garbage container.”
The ministry said the devices exploded “while preparations were underway” to dismantle them.
A security source told the AFP news agency earlier the bombs were placed near the Four Seasons hotel, where Macron had spent the night.
AFP journalists heard at least one blast echo through Damascus before seeing a plume of smoke rising near the hotel, with security forces closing nearby roads and ambulances heading to the scene.
Macron had left the hotel before the blasts took place, and they were not heard by the French presidential convoy, according to two AFP journalists traveling with them.
An AFP photographer near the tourism ministry, opposite the hotel, saw windows damaged by one of the explosions, amid a heavy security presence.
The second explosion occurred near Victoria Bridge in central Damascus, about two hundred metres from the hotel.
“I saw three traffic police officers injured on the ground, before the area was evacuated and the roads leading to it were closed,” Hamam Hammoud, a 37-year-old employee at a money exchange company, told AFP.
Before arriving at the presidential palace, Macron held a meeting on Tuesday morning with civil society representatives at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Immediately after the two explosions, hotel security took precautionary measures and asked those who had met with Macron to go to the hotel’s parking garage and remain there for their safety.
The explosions are the second since Thursday, when 10 people were killed in a bombing in a Damascus cafe.
The French president had postponed announcing the date of his visit to Damascus until his plane landed on Monday, for security reasons.
Additional sources • AP, AFP