DAMASCUS, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Three power plants in Syria went out of service on Wednesday after an explosion in a gas pipeline supplying the Tishreen thermal power plant in the eastern countryside of Damascus, Syrian state media reported.
The Syrian Electricity Company said the Deir Ali, Nasiriyah and Tishreen power plants were taken offline after the explosion disrupted gas supplies needed for their operation.
A fire sparked by the explosion was still burning Wednesday evening as specialized teams worked at the site, according to the company.
The company warned that the shutdown would reduce nationwide electricity output and temporarily extend power-rationing periods due to the drop in generation capacity.
It added that further updates would be released as the situation develops.
Earlier, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the explosion occurred on a gas pipeline feeding the Tishreen thermal power plant near the town of al-Otaiba, with civil defense teams reaching the scene.
Syrian state-run Al-Ikhbariya television said no damage had been reported in surrounding areas.
A Xinhua correspondent who happened to be in the nearby city of Jaramana at the time of the blast saw large orange flames rising into the night sky from the direction of the explosion.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast occurred in the Wadi al-Rabie area adjacent to the Tishreen plant, between the villages of Harran al-Awamid and al-Otaiba.
Large flames could be seen from towns across the Eastern Ghouta region and areas surrounding the capital, it added.
The cause of the explosion remained unclear as of Wednesday night, and authorities had not announced whether it resulted from a technical failure or other causes.
The incident came just two days after a separate explosion and fire hit a gas pipeline between al-Shoula and Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria.
The Syrian Petroleum Company said that the earlier blast was caused by a "sabotage act" targeting a sectional valve on the pipeline, disrupting gas supplies from the Jbessa gas plant to power-generation facilities.
Civil defense and petroleum company teams extinguished the fire on Tuesday, with no injuries reported, SANA said.
The two incidents come as Syria's electricity sector continues to face constraints in fuel supplies and generation capacity. Energy affairs chief Mohammad al-Bashir said earlier in September that the country requires about 24 million cubic meters of gas per day, compared with domestic production of around 8.5 million cubic meters per day, according to media reports. ■
