A bomb detonated in a crowded café in central Damascus, killing six people and injuring 22 others, Syria’s state television said on Thursday.
The interior ministry added that an explosive device had been planted inside the café, which sits only about 100‑metre (330‑foot) from the Palace of Justice in the capital’s Hejaz district.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and authorities have yet to identify the perpetrators.
The bombing is the deadliest in Damascus since a 2025 suicide strike on a church that killed 25 people. The earlier attack was allegedly carried out by the shadowy Islamist group Saraya Ansar al‑Sunnah, although officials blamed the Islamic State.
Mohammed al‑Dahabi, owner of a nearby glasses shop, compared the blast to those seen during Syria’s civil war. “The place shook, and I saw blood on every floor,” he told AFP.
Graphic video footage posted on social media shows men lying motionless on the café’s outdoor terrace, and emergency services were rushed to the scene.
Damascus governor Maher Marwan Idlibi vowed that those responsible would be punished, saying that every time the country experiences a period of stability, “malicious parties try to destabilise it.”
The attack follows a spike in violence after Islamist‑led rebels toppled Bashar al‑Assad’s regime in December 2024, ending a 13‑year civil war. Interim President Ahmed al‑Sharaa has been consolidating power and restoring security across Syria.
The city has also seen renewed sectarian clashes between government forces and members of the Alawite and Druze minorities.
