Rocket fire injured several people and killed about six people on Sunday near the entrance to the Damascus International Fair, a key business gathering being held for the first time in five years, Syrian television said.
State television, citing its reporters on the scene, said the rocket hit near the entrance of the exhibition complex where the business fair opened this week. The breaking news alert gave no details on the number of injured or the source of the rocket fire, and there was no immediate mention of the incident on state news agency SANA.
"We were preparing to receive visitors when I heard an explosion... then I saw smoke so the side of the of the entrance to the exhibition hall," said Iyad Jaber, 39, a Syrian working at a textile stand.
The Damascus International Fair was once the top event on Syria's economic calendar, but was last held in the summer of 2011, months after the start of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's Government.
This year's fair opened on Thursday, and was scheduled to last 10 days.
Its general director, Fares al-Kartally, said the decision to hold the fair this year was a result of "the return of calm and stability in most regions" of Syria.
"We want this fair to signal the start of (the country's) reconstruction," Kartally told AFP earlier this week.