The blasts hit at the height of rush hour
Two explosions have hit the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 40 people and wounding 170, officials say.
State TV footage of the blasts showed massive destruction in the al-Qazzaz suburb to the south of Damascus said to house a military intelligence complex. The TV report said they were "terrorist bombings". Damascus has been the target of several bombs in past months amid continuing anti-government unrest.
The two sides are supposed to observe a ceasefire monitored by UN observers.
But violence has continued unabated, with the restive city of Homs shelled again overnight.
Body parts
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The motorway is littered with the twisted metal of about a dozen wrecked vehicles. The area is strewn with debris.
At one of the main Damascus hospitals, a doctor says it is the worst emergency he has seen, the injuries are severe. We see 30-plus body bags at the morgue - the corpses are charred sticks, with limbs torn off.
Whoever did this wanted to cause the most damage possible because the blast took place during early morning rush hour.
Every time something happens in Syria, there are two narratives.
We have spoken to angry people who blame Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey - countries which have come out in support of the Syrian opposition. The opposition alleges as always that this was the cynical work of the government itself to try to discredit the opposition.
At the scene
At one of the main Damascus hospitals, a doctor says it is the worst emergency he has seen, the injuries are severe. We see 30-plus body bags at the morgue - the corpses are charred sticks, with limbs torn off.
Whoever did this wanted to cause the most damage possible because the blast took place during early morning rush hour.
Every time something happens in Syria, there are two narratives.
We have spoken to angry people who blame Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey - countries which have come out in support of the Syrian opposition. The opposition alleges as always that this was the cynical work of the government itself to try to discredit the opposition.
A first explosion occurred shortly before 08:00 (05:00 GMT) as people headed into work.
The blast was apparently to attract people to the scene and was quickly followed by a second, much bigger explosion, a local journalist who spoke to eyewitnesses told the BBC.Television footage showed dozens of mangled and burnt vehicles, some containing bodies.
Two large craters could be seen in the road.
The district targeted is said to house a military intelligence complex, including the headquarters, 10 floors high, of the counter-terrorism operation for the military security in Syria, involved in President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on the ongoing pro-democracy protests.
Next to it was another military security intelligence building which was also destroyed in the attack.
The building is part of a broader military compound the Palestine Branch, one of the most feared among the more than 20 secret police organisations in the country, correspondents say.
It was originally set up in the 1950s to interrogate suspected Israeli spies, and then to deal with the 500,000 Palestinian refugees in the country, which it still does. But over the past decade, it has evolved into the country's counter-terrorism unit, and is infamous for interrogations and torture, they say.
It was previously attacked in 2008 by Lebanese group Fatah al-Islam with a 200kg (440lb) bomb that killed a senior officer.
Large crowds gathered despite the security cordon, shouting slogans and chants in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, says the BBC's Lyse Doucet at the scene in Damascus.
All the while, the emergency teams looked for body parts and bulldozers are at work clearing away some of the debris. The whole area looks like a wasteland, our correspondent adds.
One Damascus resident, who gave his name as Ahmad, told the BBC the blasts were the biggest explosions he had ever heard.
"I heard the two explosions clearly from my house. The whole of Damascus heard them. They were very, very strong - the biggest explosions I have ever heard. At first, I thought they were air strikes.
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Maj Gen Robert Mood, visited the site of the Damascus explosions. BBC
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