At least 18 injured in explosions in Damascus during French President Macron’s visit

Two explosions took place in Damascus on Tuesday (July 7, 2026) near a hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying, wounding at least 18 people, on the second day of the French leader’s visit.

AFP journalists heard at least one blast echo through Damascus before seeing a plume of smoke rising near the Four Seasons Hotel, with security forces closing a road and ambulances heading to the scene.

A Syrian security source told AFP that one of the bombs was placed in a dumpster and the other in a vehicle near the Four Seasons Hotel.

The blasts wounded 18 people, including four police officers, Syrian state media said.

The French President had already left the hotel to go to the presidential palace, where an AFP team saw him arrive for a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa.

An AFP photographer near the tourism ministry, opposite the hotel, saw windows damaged by one of the explosions, amid a heavy security presence.

“I saw three traffic police officers injured on the ground, before the area was evacuated and the roads leading to it were closed,” Hamam Hammoud, a 37-year-old employee at a money exchange company, told AFP.

Macron at palace

The blasts came moments before Syrian state television announced Mr. Macron’s arrival at the palace.

The French President, the first Western European leader to visit Syria since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024, would continue his trip, France’s Elysee Palace said.

Mr. Macron is meeting with Mr. Sharaa to discuss post-war reconstruction and reiterate his call for “unity” and “plurality”, having also met with civil society representatives.

The explosions are the second since Thursday (July 2, 2026), when 10 people were killed in a bombing in a Damascus cafe.

The French President had postponed announcing the date of his visit to Damascus until his plane landed on Monday (July 6, 2026), for security reasons.

After the meeting with Mr. Sharaa, Mr. Macron was scheduled to take part in an “economic forum focusing on Syria’s reconstruction and strategic corridors”.

He is being accompanied by several key economic players including Rodolphe Saade, chief executive of maritime transport giant CMA CGM, and TotalEnergies head Patrick Pouyanne.

The last French President to visit the country was Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, before Assad brutally crushed pro-democracy protests in 2011, sparking a conflict that killed more than half a million people and devastated Syria’s infrastructure and industry.

In May 2025, Mr. Macron hosted Mr. Sharaa on his first official visit to a European country, a move that preceded the Syrian leader’s trip to Washington last year to meet U.S. President Donald Trump.