AL-NAYRAB: Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed today when leftover munitions exploded inside a house in northwest Syria, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deadly blast a day after another organisation said two-thirds of Syrians risked being killed or wounded by unexploded ordnance.

“Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when leftover munitions stored inside a house” in Idlib province exploded, said the Observatory, adding the toll was provisional.

An AFP correspondent saw civil defence personnel working to remove rubble and pull victims from the destroyed house.

Mohammed Ibrahim, from the civil defence in Idlib, said they received a report “of an explosion of unknown provenance in Nayrab, and when teams headed to the site, they found unexploded ordnance”.

Syria’s conflict has killed more than half a million people and forced millions from their homes since erupting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Non-governmental organisation Humanity and Inclusion said yesterday that of the around 1 million munitions that have landed or been planted across Syria since then, experts estimate that 100,000 to 300,000 had never detonated.

It’s “an absolute disaster”, said HI’s Syria programme director Danila Zizi, noting “more than 15 million people (are) at risk” out of the country’s estimated population of some 23 million.

As hundreds of thousands of Syrians return to their homes after Islamist-led rebels toppled long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, “urgent action is needed to mitigate the risk of accident”, HI said.