Damascus: At least 39 civilians, including 12 children, have been killed in a powerful explosion in a major rebel stronghold in Syria near the border with Turkey, a war monitor reported.
The residential building was thought to be storing weapons and ammunition, a war monitor said.
White Helmet rescuers workers extinguishing a fire at the scene of an explosion that hit a five-story building, in the village of Sarmada, near the Turkish border, north Syria, on Sunday.
The Sunday explosion happened in the town of Sarmada, which is near the Turkish border and north of the provincial capital Idlib city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian civilians, displaced during the country's seven-year long war, were living in the building which was also used by an arms dealer, the Observatory said.
The Syrian White Helmets, a group of rescue workers established in rebel-held areas of the country, also said on Twitter that 36 people were dead and dozens were wounded in the attack, and that so far 10 people had been pulled alive from the rubble after the dawn explosion.
Rescuers remove a body from the rubble at the scene of the explosion in Sarmada, Idlib.
They said the cause of the blast, which brought down the whole multi-storey building block, was unknown.
A civil defence volunteer in Idlib put the death toll at over 50. He said at least 70 others were injured.
Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist alliance led by an al-Qaeda-linked group.
It is the largest remaining rebel-held enclave in Syria and there are fears of further bloodshed in the event of a government-backed offensive.
Buses arrive in Tel el-Eis, the crossing between Aleppo and Idlib provinces, as some 7000 people were evacuated from villages run by rebels, in July.
In the past three years, thousands of rebels and their families have been moved from different parts of the war-torn country to Idlib under agreements with the government.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan his country had accelerated diplomatic and military efforts in Idlib province, where Turkey has set up a dozen military observation posts, to avoid a "catastrophe" like those seen in other parts of Syria.
Turkey is host to 2.7 million refugees from Syria.
DPA, Reuters
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