**Rough cut - no reporter narration**<br/> <br />At least 31 people were killed after at least one explosion shook the central Damascus district of Mazraa on Thursday, near a building belonging to Syria's ruling Baath party.<br/> <br />Other activists said at least 40 were killed.<br/> <br />It was reported that casualties included children at a nearby school in the residential district of the capital. Debris was spread over a wide area.<br/> <br />Syrian state media blamed on what it said was a suicide bombing by "terrorists" battling President Bashar al-Assad.<br/> <br />The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group which monitors violence in the country, said a car bomb had detonated near a building of the ruling Baath Party. It said cars 300 metres away from the blast were badly damaged.<br/> <br />Activists reported at least two further blasts in the city after the Mazraa explosion, but there were no immediate details.
