Thirty-four civilians have been killed and more than 50 others injured by a powerful car bomb explosion in Syria, the state-run news agency said.

Sana said the blast went off in 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 died and scores of others 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.