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Historic statues and cultural objects have been stolen from Syria's National Museum in the capital, authorities report.

The robbery was noticed on the start of the week, when employees apparently found that a doorway had been broken from the interior.

The half-dozen missing sculptures were made of marble and traced back to the Roman era, a source informed the media outlet.

The nation's antiquities authority said it had opened an investigation to identify the "events surrounding the theft of a collection of artifacts", and that actions had been enacted to enhance safeguarding and monitoring systems.

The director of internal security in the Damascus region, General Osama Atkeh, was quoted by the state-run Sana news agency as declaring that security forces were probing the incident, which he said had focused on several "archaeological statues and unique items".

He added that security personnel at the institution and additional people were being interrogated.

The National Museum, which was established in the early twentieth century, holds the significant cultural treasures in Syria.

It contains clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the 14th Century BC from an ancient city, where evidence of the oldest known complete alphabet was uncovered; early centuries CE classical statues from the ancient city, a significant cultural centres of the historical period; and a ancient synagogue that was built at an ancient location.

The facility was had to cease operations in 2012, twelve months after the start of the internal strife. Most of the holdings was evacuated and stored at secret locations to safeguard them.

It began limited operations in recent years and returned to normal in early this year, four weeks after opposition groups removed President Bashar al-Assad.

Each of the six of the country's cultural landmarks were affected or significantly impacted during the internal struggle.

The IS organization destroyed several religious structures and historical sites at Palmyra, claiming that they were against their beliefs. The cultural organization censured the destruction as a violation.

Numerous cultural items were also lost or stolen from archaeological sites and cultural institutions.