UPDATE 1-Car bomb hits Syria's Latakia - state media

A car bomb detonated in Syria's government-held city of Latakia on Tuesday, killing the driver and injuring several other people, Syrian state media reported.

Footage carried on the state-run al-Ikhbariya news channel showed a large group of people milling around in a street while wreckage smouldered on the ground. Though President Bashar al-Assad has regained control over more than half of Syria, attackers have periodically continued to strike in cities he controls with suicide blasts and car bombs.

State news agency SANA reported that the driver of the vehicle, a Suzuki minivan, had been killed in the explosion, and that four other people had been wounded. It reported that the authorities had dismantled another explosive device in the same location before the blast in the vehicle.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported that five people had been injured in the explosion. (Reporting By Angus McDowall; editing by John Stonestreet)