At least five dead in bombing on Israeli bus

10.30pm

A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber has detonated explosives on a crowded bus in central Tel Aviv, killing at least five people and wounding about 40, police said.

"I heard a massive blast. I ran outside where customers were eating lunch. I saw people escaping from the bus, jumping out of the windows covered in blood. I saw soldiers and women covered in blood shouting and screaming," said Ofer Menachem, the owner of a cafe near the site of the explosion.

The bus' windows were blown out, and the ground beside the bus was spattered with pools of blood and the belongings of passengers. Ambulance crews ferried bleeding passengers, some with their clothes blown off their bodies, to hospitals.

It was the second bombing in two days. Yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber waiting to board a bus in northern Israel detonated his explosives when a policeman approached him, killing himself and the police officer. Israeli police had been on alert after receiving information that a Palestinian suicide bomber had infiltrated into Israel.

Tel Aviv police said the blast was probably carried out by a suicide bomber who boarded Tel Aviv bus number 4, one of the city's main bus lines.

"It appears that a suicide bomber blew himself up at the front of the bus," said David Kraus, a Tel Aviv police commander.

"We know of five dead and some 40 wounded," he told reporters at the scene of the blast on Tel Aviv's Allenby Street, outside the city's main synagogue.

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed more than 250 Israelis since launching an uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000 after negotiations for a final peace treaty deadlocked.

- REUTERS

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