Blasts rock Damascus during Macron visit

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that his official visit to Syria is continuing despite twin explosions in Damascus that injured 18 people earlier in the day.

“Nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic, and united Syria,” Macron wrote on US social media company X.

“This morning I met Syria in all its diversity. I saw dignity, courage, and determination,” he said, adding that his visit “is still ongoing.”

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 Elysee Palace saying his visit is ongoing.

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 AFP 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 travelling 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 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, according to an attendee who spoke to AFP.

The explosions are the second since Thursday, when 10 people were killed in a bombing in a Damascus cafe.

Blasts rock Damascus during Macron visit

Bombs exploded near the hotel where Emmanuel Macron was staying in Syria on Tuesday, a security source said, but the French president did not hear ​the explosions, the Elysee said, and he met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa ​soon afterwards.

The blasts underscore the major security challenges in Syria, ⁠where Macron is the first head of state of a European Union country to ​visit since rebels led by Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

A Reuters ​witness heard explosions in the vicinity and saw smoke rising. Roads were sealed off, and security measures were implemented, the security source said.

The Elysee said the blasts were not audible ​from the presidential motorcade, and a Reuters journalist with the press group ​accompanying Macron did not hear the blast or see any commotion during the French president’s morning ‌events.

⁠State television later reported that Macron and Sharaa had met at the Syrian Presidential Palace.

Read: Turkish foreign minister says Ankara summit will help shape NATO’s future

Macron’s visit has highlighted Syria’s geopolitical transformation under Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander who has established close ties with Western and Middle Eastern powers that ​shunned Assad, as ​he seeks to rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of war.

During the Syrian conflict, a range of militant groups, including Islamic State, ​gained a foothold in the country.

Sharaa, a member of ​Syria’s Sunni ⁠Muslim majority, has pledged to build an inclusive new order in Syria since ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family. But his ⁠promise has ​been tested by bouts of violence pitting pro-government forces ​against members of religious and ethnic minority groups, with many hundreds killed last year.