MOSCOW, January 4 (RIA Novosti) - A car bomb has left at least nine people dead at a gas station in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, British media reported Friday citing activists.

The Barzeh al-Balad district was reportedly hit by the bomb, the BBC reported, as many people were waiting for fuel as the country experiences constant fuel shortages.

The death toll could rise, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

Dozens were killed on Tuesday by an air strike on another gas station in Damascus outskirts.

A correspondent of Russia’s Arab-language satellite TV channel Rusiya Al-Yaum (Russia Today), Kamil Sakr, has received a gunshot wound in a Damascus suburb, the channel has reported on its website.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since March 2011, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said citing new analysis released on Wednesday by the United Nations.

Russia has faced heavy international criticism over its refusal to back UN sanctions against Syria, its last ally in the Arab world, over what it called the pro-rebel bias of the proposed resolutions.

But Moscow has denied it is backing Assad and says it is concerned that the Syrian president’s enforced departure would only worsen the conflict.