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Ancient artifacts and other artefacts have been stolen from Syria's National Museum in Damascus, officials say.

The burglary was noticed on the start of the week, when staff allegedly found that an entrance had been damaged from the inside.

The six taken statues were crafted from marble and dated back to the Roman era, an authority told the Associated Press.

The nation's antiquities authority said it had initiated an inquiry to establish the "circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a group of items", and that measures had been implemented to strengthen safeguarding and observation methods.

The director of national security in the Damascus region, General Osama Atkeh, was cited by the official media as declaring that security forces were probing the incident, which he said had targeted several "ancient sculptures and unique items".

He continued that museum protectors at the institution and additional people were being interrogated.

The National Museum, which was created in the early twentieth century, holds the significant archaeological collection in Syria.

It includes clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the ancient era from an ancient city, where indications of the oldest known linguistic system was uncovered; early centuries CE Greco-Roman sculptures from Palmyra, a significant ancient sites of the ancient world; and a ancient religious building that was built at another archaeological site.

The museum was forced to close in the early 2010s, twelve months after the outbreak of the devastating civil war. A large portion of the collection was removed and stored at secret locations to protect them.

It partially resumed in 2018 and resumed full operations in the beginning of the year, one month after opposition groups deposed President Bashar al-Assad.

Each of the six of nationally recognized sites were affected or partly ruined during the internal struggle.

The Islamic State group blew up several religious structures and other structures at the ancient city, asserting that they were un-Islamic. The cultural organization condemned the damage as a war crime.

Many cultural items were also destroyed or stolen from historical locations and cultural institutions.