Syria-based journalist Danny Makki tweeted: “Heard several ambulances in Al-Adawi district, seems like an IED went off, loud bang, no word on causialites yet.”
A statement issued UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said: “The explosion took place near a security branch in the south of the city,” said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Russia is allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has been instrumental in maintaining his regime during the lengthy civil war which engulfed the country.
Syria News tweeted a picture it said showed the aftermath of the explosion, captioning it: “The first picture of the explosion of the explosive device in the enemy in Damascus.”
State-run Sana news agency describe it as a “terrorist bombing”, without providing any more detail.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion, which came two days after a car bomb hit the coastal city of Latakia, another stronghold of President Assad, whichkilled one person and injured 14.
And on Sunday, a bomb exploded near a military explosion in the city.
The embassy itself was unaffected by the blast and remains open, an official told Russia Today.
Syria’s war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced more than half its pre-war population from their homes and dragged in global powers.
Though President Bashar al-Assad has regained control over most of Syria with Russian and Iranian help, attackers have struck in cities he controls with suicide blasts and car bombs.
(More to follow)