An explosion hit worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Syria’s Homs on Friday, state media said, killing at least eight in the latest attack on the minority community.

The blast is the second in a place of worship since Islamist authorities took charge of the country a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.

State news agency SANA reported “an explosion inside the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood”.

Quoting a health ministry official, SANA gave a preliminary toll of at least eight dead and 18 wounded.

Syria’s interior ministry said in a statement that “a terrorist explosion” targeted the mosque “during Friday prayers”.

Homs was the scene of heavy sectarian violence during Syria’s civil war.