DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP)— Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad’s luxurious home on Sunday after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule.

Assad’s whereabouts were not immediately clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria.

Residents in the capital were seen cheering in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.”

AFPTV footage showed a column of smoke rising from central Damascus, and AFP correspondents in the city saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad’s luxurious home after it had been looted.

The rooms of the residence had been left completely empty, save some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor, while an entrance hall at the presidential palace not far away had been torched.

“I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” he said, adding: “We are starting a new history for Syria.”

Assad’s reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning offensive.

“After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) displacement… we announce today the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria,” the rebel factions said on Telegram.

While there has been no communication from Assad or his entourage on his whereabouts, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people”.

The head of war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: “Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left” the facility.

AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by the different parties, including the reported departure.

Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father and the founder of the system of government that he inherited.

For the past 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent could land one in prison or get one killed.

As rebels entered the capital, HTS said its fighters broke into a jail on the outskirts of Damascus, announcing an “end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya”, which has become a by-word for the darkest abuses of Assad’s era.

The rapid developments came just hours after HTS said it had captured the strategic city of Homs, where prisoners were also released.

Homs was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27, reigniting a years-long war that had become largely dormant.

US President Joe Biden was keeping a close eye on the “extraordinary events” unfolding in Syria, the White House said.

US president-elect Donald Trump said that Assad had “fled his country” after losing Russia’s backing.

Assad’s rule had for years also been supported by Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose forces “vacated their positions around Damascus”, a source close to it said Sunday.