Bashar al-Assad resigns and flees Syria, claims Russia; rebels storm his palace

Russia's foreign ministry said Bashar al-Assad had held talks with several participants in the conflict before resigning.

Russia claimed on Sunday that Syria's Bashar al-Assad, whose government was overthrown by rebels after nearly 14 years of a crippling civil war, had resigned from the presidency and left for an undisclosed location.

A man walks by a broken portrait of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad as people search for belongings in the ransacked private residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Malkeh district of Damascus(AP)

Russia's foreign ministry said Bashar al-Assad had held talks with several participants in the conflict before resigning. It claimed he left the country after instructing the administration about the peaceful transfer of power. Moscow didn't participate in the deliberations.

"As a result of talks between B. Assad and a range of participants of the conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from his presidential post and leave the country, giving instructions to proceed with the peaceful transfer of power," Moscow's foreign ministry said.

"Russia did not take part in these talks," it added.

It was reported earlier today that Assad had flown out of Damascus for an unknown destination as rebels entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. The whereabouts of Assad, his wife Asma and two children are unknown.

Meanwhile, the end of Assad's decades-long rule prompted celebrations in Syria. Revellers toppled and trampled on statues of Bashar al-Assad's late father Hafez in Damascus.

In Aleppo in northern Syria, images showed people toppling a statue of Bashar al-Assad's brother Bassel as well as one of their fathers.

In Daraa in southern Syria, the cradle of the 2011 uprising, online images verified by AFP showed a rebel fighter driving a motorbike down a road and dragging a toppled statue of Hafez al-Assad behind him.

Meanwhile, Syrian mobs ransacked the palaces of Bashar al-Assad and stole furniture and ornaments.

People entered the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, Reuters reported, adding that several men carried smart chairs over their shoulders. The Muhajreen Palace was also ransacked.

All you need to know about the Assad family

Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, captured power after the 1970 coup. The signs of his regime where dissent was allegedly crushed were still visible across Syria in the form of his statues and images. His photograph was pasted on walls, institutions, offices and schools around the country.

Bashar al-Assad inherited power from his father in 2000; he had been ruling since then. Since 2011, he spearheaded the crackdown on the democracy movement that began with peaceful protests.