Six people killed in mortar attack at Damascus fair

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict, did not give further details of the incident, which wasn't reported by state media but was cited on Syrian social media.

Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Observatory, did not rule out other causes may have caused the blast. The monitor said the number of casualties was expected to rise as some of the ten people injured were in critical condition.

The Damascus International Fair, held in the southern outskirts of the capital, opened last week for the first time since the summer of 2011, only months after countrywide unrest erupted.

The expo is being attended by regional and foreign businessmen from over 45 countries and authorities have hailed it as a sign that the war-torn country was recovering from the conflict.