A car bomb exploded in a pro-government neighbourhood in the central Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday, killing at least 36 people just hours after one of the deadliest mortar attacks in the heart of the capital, Damascus, killed 14 people, officials and state media said.

A Syrian government official said the car bomb in Homs exploded in the city’s predominantly Alawite district of Zahra. Along with the 36 killed, 85 people were wounded in the blast, the official told The Associated Press by telephone from Homs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 37 people, including five children, were killed and that more than 80 were wounded in Homs. It said the attack was a double car bombing.

In Damascus, several mortar shells slammed into the predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Shaghour in the morning hours, killing 14 people and wounding 86, Syria’s official SANA news agency and state TV reported.

Also on Tuesday, the international chemical weapons watchdog said it will send a team to Syria to investigate recent allegations about the use of chlorine gas in the war.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that the Syrian government has agreed to the mission, and will provide security in areas under its control.