Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco world heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, BBC reports say.
The Syrian Observatory monitoring group says there are no reports yet of any destruction of artefacts.
It says IS also controls the nearby airport, prison and intelligence HQ. Syria has admitted it has pulled pro-government troops out of the city.
IS has previously demolished ancient sites in Iraq that pre-date Islam.
Syrian state media said pro-government forces had been pulled out of Tadmur, the modern settlement on Palmyra – a Unesco World Heritage site – after “assuring the evacuation” of most of its inhabitants.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says the population would normally number around 70,000, but it has recently been swollen by an influx of people displaced from other combat areas.
Our correspondent says there was effectively nothing to stop the militants entering the ruins following the collapse of the government forces.
If there were Islamist militants in the captured prison, he says, they may now have been recruited by IS.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 100 pro-government troops were killed in overnight clashes around Palmyra.
Hundreds of Palmyra’s statues have been moved to safety but large monuments from the ancient parts of the city could not be moved.
“This is the entire world’s battle,” said Syria’s head of antiquities Maamoun Abdul Karim. He called on the US-led military coalition against IS to prevent the group destroying the ancient site.
If the city is destroyed by IS, a major chapter in Middle Eastern history and culture will be yet another casualty of this tragic conflict.
