Thirty killed in Syrian blast

At least 30 people were killed and dozens of others injured when an air strike by Syrian forces hit a gas station in the north of the country and triggered an explosion.

The blast happened in the town of Ain Issa, about 25 miles (40km) from the Turkish border, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said witnesses told him they saw at least 30 bodies, but that the death toll was likely to rise. He said dozens of other people were wounded.

Mr Abdul-Rahman quoted one witness as saying that the explosion was caused by an air strike, but that the Observatory could not independently confirm the cause of the blast.

Another group of anti-regime activists, the Local Co-ordination Committees, reported intense attacks by warplanes on the gas station.

The group did not give a death toll, saying only that many people were killed or wounded. It said more than 70 casualties were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital of Raqqa.