Lina Sinjab
Reporting from Damascus

We are standing by the presidential palace - one of the palaces where Assad used to live.

Lots of people, many coming from rural areas, broke into the palace and they have almost emptied it and destroyed everything.

By the time we arrived, the place had been almost emptied except for some pieces of furniture.

Members of rebel group the HTS have arrived to control the situation - they have said this is not acceptable.

I've lived in Syria for 10 years and have never been into this street.

I can see people rushing into this place in revenge and also with lots of happiness that they've managed to break in.

The scenes are very chaotic inside. There has been looting in other government buildings but this is a different situation.

People are going in, posing for pictures while taking what they can. They are taking revenge for years of oppression and poverty because of Assad and his father.

According to a statement from Syrian rebels, a curfew has been imposed in Damascus beginning at 16:00 local time (13:00 GMT). The curfew is expected to continue until 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent

At the Turkish-Syrian border, hours after the rebels entered Damascus, there was a group of around 50 Syrian men waiting to go back to their country.

This is the crossing that leads to Idlib, which for years was the rebel stronghold in the north-west, and Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city that was captured from government forces last week.

Abdo Ghrebi, 27, left the country in 2017 and was trying to return to Idlib.

He said people in Syria had been waiting for this moment "for a long time".

He was travelling by himself, and said his mother and sister were planning to join him once things were more stable.

"We’re peaceful people. We never liked any war or violence, we only wanted peace, unlike the regime," he said.

"We lost a lot of martyrs but, thankfully, we’re now getting our dignity and freedom back and will have a better future. Our losses weren’t in vain."

He said his father and brother died during the siege of Eastern Ghouta by government forces in the early stages of the civil war, and that he only managed to escape through a tunnel.

Said Kreaydiye, 29, was also attempting the journey back to Idlib, where his mother was waiting for him. He carried only a rucksack and a small plastic bag.

When I asked him what he thought about President Assad’s fall, he gave me a big smile.

"We’re high from the happiness of seeing him gone. We hope everything will be better. At least, we will be at home."

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Image source, Reuters

This is a major blow to the Kremlin’s long-standing ambition of expanding Russia’s influence across the globe, preferably at the West’s expense.

Syria was the focus of Russia’s presence in the Middle East, and Bashar al-Assad was Vladimir Putin’s main ally in the region. Efforts to prop up his regime lasted almost a decade and cost Russia a lot both in terms of money and personnel losses.

The Syria campaign was a huge source of pride for the Kremlin’s media machine, which presented it as a sign of Russia’s resurgence following the break-up of the USSR.

But now Vladimir Putin couldn’t or wouldn’t save his protégé, and it is important to understand why. Was it because he is too tied up in Ukraine? Was it because he did not think al-Assad was worth saving? Was it both?

Ukrainians may be happy to see Putin’s ally toppled, but if Russia’s troops and military hardware are pulled out of Syria, it is Ukraine where they may be deployed.

Western leaders are welcoming the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media: "The barbaric state has fallen. At last.

"I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity. France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Assad's fall "good news" and urged a political solution to stabilise Syria, according to AFP.

"Bashar al-Assad oppressed his people brutally. He has countless lives on his conscience and has driven numerous people to flee, many of whom have arrived in Germany," Scholz said, according to the news agency.

UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said if the Assad regime has fallen then the government "welcome that news".

Barbara Plett Usher
reporting from Damascus

As we've reported, the Damascus residence of Bashar al-Assad has been almost stripped bare by looters.

Hundreds of others are milling around - they have come to see a place that was off-limits before.

"This is bad," one man said to me, pointing at the looting and shaking his head. "I am sorry."

The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has made a statement on Syrian state TV.

The Reuters news agency reports Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani as saying there is no room for turning back and that "the future is ours".

Lina Sinjab
Reporting from Damascus

Rebels are moving through the city and have reached the area where the presidential house is located.

We've heard from many locals reporting looting, with people breaking into houses. However, they say these looters are from the suburbs, not the armed rebels.

I'm currently in the Malki neighbourhood, near Assad's residence and one of the presidential palaces. The Ministry of Culture building is also located here.

Residents are out on the streets trying to protect their neighbourhood. They're saying people have broken into the Ministry and stolen items.

There's a lot of concern about the lack of order and chaos, which "thieves" might exploit.

The BBC can also confirm that looting has occurred at Assad's home.

There's been a lot going on in Syria over the weekend. Rebel factions have made rapid advances, capturing Damascus and ousting President Assad.

Watch a quick recap of how events unfolded in the video below.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from Turkey

It's a seismic moment in the region. Assad was preceded by his father, and his family have treated Syria as their private business - now they've gone.

Because Syria is in such a strategic location in the heart of the region, what happens in Syria affects all its neighbours and, by extension, the wider world.

The question now is whether these rebels can be judicious - can they try to promote stability?

They've said there should be no revenge against minority groups, but let's see what happens because what I've just described is the good scenario.

The bad scenario is something akin to what happened in Libya after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011 and Saddam Hussein in Iraq after 2003, which was years of torment, bloodshed, and civil war.

They've already had that in Syria; maybe they've had enough and want to move to a better place.

After years of dictatorship, when that ends, you don't know what is going to happen in terms of people perhaps wanting to get revenge, or groups wanting to take power - this is a really unstable period coming up.

The Russian foreign ministry has said that deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad left his post and the country following negotiations with "other participants in the armed conflict" and gave instructions for a peaceful power transfer.

It insists that Russia was not involved in those negotiations and that its military bases in Syria are on high alert but not under threat.

Russia states it is in touch with "all groups in the Syrian opposition".

Russia had been a key ally of Assad, previously offering him with military assistance to remain in power.

Jon Donnison
Reporting from Jerusalem

There is a lot of concern here in Israel.

Israel has already sent reinforcements to the occupied Golan Heights, which shares a border with Syria.

We understand Israeli forces have pushed into the buffer zone already, which is on the other side of the Golan Heights, and they have been carrying out strikes in the last 24 hours against some of those rebel groups who they say have advanced towards that buffer zone.

Their message is basically to back off.

There is real concern because it shares a border with Syria, and there's concern about chemical weapons that Syria has getting into the hands of the rebels, some of whom are affiliated with al-Qaeda.

When the Arab uprising happened in Syria in 2011, what Israel wanted was stability. It wanted Bashar al-Assad to remain in power. That was despite the fact that Assad was backed by Hezbollah at the time, and Hezbollah and Iran are two of Israel's greatest enemies.

Now Israel is going to have to work out what it wants to happen in Syria.

Lina Sinjab
reporting from Damascus

As we've been reporting, people are celebrating in Umayyad Square, in Damascus.

There are chaotic scenes and mixed feelings of joy.

We see many rebels here coming from different parts, mainly from southern Syria, but we also see cars with plates from Idlib and Aleppo.

Speaking to people, they are really excited.

I spoke to one woman who was in tears and said most of her family were dead, killed inside prison. She says this is a great moment.

Everyone is approaching us, happy, celebrating.

The Syrian revolution flag is being held.

Umayyad Square – the central square – is where state television is run. We’re hearing many reports about looting at the presidential palace and lots of celebratory gunfire in the air.

Barbara Plett Usher
reporting from Damascus

The central Umayyad Square is where people are celebrating - there’s a constant hail of bullets as the rebels fire into the air.

Civilians are driving around, giving me the peace sign, saying how much better life will be now, some laughing, some crying.

We've also spoken to two young men outside the Iranian embassy. They said they were very happy, that life under Bashar al-Assad had been very difficult and they didn’t feel safe. But now things would get better.

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Muammar Gaddafi in Libya... Ben Ali in Tunisia... Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen... Hosni Mubarak in Egypt... and now Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

All the Middle Eastern rulers whom the Arab Spring protesters called "dictators" back in 2011 are now gone, along with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a victim not of the Arab Spring but of the ill-fated US-led invasion.

Of all the targets of the protesters, only Bahrain’s King Hamad has survived, partly because he heads a Gulf Arab monarchy, not a "revolutionary republic" like the others, but also because he gave a little ground and accepted some of the reforms put forward by international jurists.

"I could have gone the way of Syria," he told me at the time in 2011, "but instead I listened to their demands." Well, only partly. Bahrain is still far from a perfect democracy, but it is a happier place than Bashar’s Syria has been.

The group calling itself Islamic State (IS) may have grabbed the headlines during its five-year-long reign of terror, but by far the biggest death toll on Syrians was inflicted by the regime itself.

Behind Bashar’s well-cut suits, the fawning posters, the clapping, hand-picked members of Syria’s "parliament" lay a trail of blood, soaked into the walls of his underground gulag of prisons.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

Image source, Reuters

This surprising rebel victory in Syria is being led by the most powerful Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a political and paramilitary force.

It emerged from the Syrian uprising of 2011 as an affiliate of Al-Qaeda but formally broke ties with it in 2016.

For years, its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani has been trying to change his group's image abroad while enforcing strict Islamist rule in the northwest corner of Syria under his control.

Recently, he assured Syria's many minority communities they had no reason to worry. However, HTS is still classified by Western governments as a terrorist organisation, and its sudden rise is raising questions and concerns not just in Syria but in neighbouring countries.

There's also concern about how it will cooperate with other rebels, including a group of Turkish-backed militias known as the Syrian National Army, Kurdish fighters in the northwest, and a newly formed faction, the Southern Operations Room, which includes fighters who worked closely with the West in the early years of the Syrian uprising.

Barbara Plett Usher
reporting from Damascus

Damascus is relatively quiet, but there is a lot of gunfire and the occasional sound of an explosion—it seems to be celebratory.

We’ve passed through the central Umayyad Square—it was full of young men shooting in the air—rebels or their supporters.

We saw one boy who had been injured by gunfire being carried away.

There are cars on the streets, but the shops are closed.

It looks like most people are keeping a low profile, or at least not coming to the centre of town.

At one location where armed men had gathered, we were told they were protecting their building from possible looters.

Image source, Reuters

Syrian rebels have taken control of Damascus and announced this morning that they've toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years.

However, it's currently unclear where Assad is.

There are reports that the deposed leader boarded a plane out of Damascus. Reuters news agency says two senior army officials claim Assad flew from the city to an unknown location early on Sunday.

Turkey’s foreign minister suggests Assad is likely out of the country now but hasn't revealed where he might be. Similarly, a top diplomat from the UAE has neither confirmed nor denied if Assad has sought refuge in Abu Dhabi.

The map below shows cities in Syria that are reportedly under rebel control. These include the capital, Damascus, as well as Syria's second and third largest cities, Aleppo and Homs, and the largest city in the east, Deir al-Zour.

The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher is reporting from inside Damascus.

You can watch her describe what she's seen in the last few hours. She's heard gunfire and explosions, but she says it's "relatively calm" in the city this morning.