Explosives planted in a taxi detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shiite Muslim shrine Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashura, state media reported.

According to AP, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV and the state news agency said Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash also reported that 26 people wounded in the blast in the Sayida Zeinab neighbourhood were being treated at several hospitals. Twenty others were treated on site or discharged, he said. The Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a woman was among those who died and that her three children were wounded.