A large fire broke out near Damascus, Syria, early Monday morning, leading to a country-wide power outage, Israel Hayom reported.
Large firefighting teams were called to the scene, working to gain control of the flames.
The fire was the result of an explosion along the Arab gas pipeline, between Adra and al-Dhamir, and SANA, quoting government officials, reported that the area's main pipeline, which provided gas to the southern part of the country, was vulnerable to explosions due to terror activities. This in turn led to a general electrical outage.
According to Syria's Oil Minister, the explosion may have been the result of a terror attack.
After the fire was extinguished, Syria's Energy Minister announced that some of the country's power stations had resumed operating, providing electricity for essential sites. In addition, electricity had partly returned to some areas.
Electricity minister, Mohammad Zahir Kharboutli told SANA that this is the sixth time such an explosion had occurred in near the pipeline. He added that the power outage had been caused by a drop in gas supply to power stations.
Kharboutli also emphasized that his office is working with the the Energy Ministry in order to reconnect citizens to electricity within the next few hours.