Just a week after President Bashir al-Assad's regime was toppled by the Islamist HTS rebel group, people were going about their lives as usual in Syria's capital, Damascus, shopping and socialising - and with surprisingly few armed rebels patrolling the streets.

Syrian rebels appear to have entered the capital Damascus after facing scant resistance from regime forces, as President Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long grip on power appeared to wane by the minute.