An explosives-laden bus blew up Tuesday in a predominantly pro-government neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs that has been repeatedly targeted, killing eight people, state television said.

The attack was claimed shortly afterwards by the Islamic State group in a posting by its propaganda agency Amaq on social media channels.

The blast rocked a street in the Akrameh neighbourhood mostly inhabited by members of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

"The toll in the terrorist explosion on Al-Ahram Street has rising to eight dead and 15 injured," state television said in a breaking news alert.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said a minibus had blown up on the edge of the Akrameh district.

The attack left the mangled metal carcasses of burnt-out vehicles strewn across the road and shattered windows in buildings on either side of the street.

Shortly afterwards, IS's propaganda agency Amaq said fighters from the group had been behind the attack.

Akrameh has been hit by several such attacks in the past, the deadliest of which killed nearly 50 schoolchildren in October 2014.

That attack prompted rare demonstrations and the firing of several local security officials.

Security measures were stepped up after the 2014 attack, including with additional checkpoints and roadblocks.

Homs has been fully controlled by Syria's government since May, when the last rebel fighters in the city were evacuated after a deal with the government overseen by Russia.

Source: AFP