A powerful car bomb explosion has reportedly killed 34 civilians and wounded more than 50 others in central Syria.

According to the Associated Press, the state-run SANA news agency said the explosion went off on Friday, June 20 morning in the government-controlled Horrah village in the countryside near the central city of Hama.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents the violence in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, said at least 37 people were killed and scores were wounded.

Car bombs are common in Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year. The conflict has killed more than 160,000 people according to opposition activists. Nearly a third of the victims were civilians.