KABUL: (Middle East Press) A bomb attack on a presidential guard bus has killed at least 12 people in the Tunisian capital, the interior ministry said, calling the incident a “terror act”.
In addition, 17 were wounded in the attack, according to an interior ministry statement.
The bus was hit on the busy Mohamed 5 Boulevard in central Tunis on Tuesday evening.
President Beji Caid Essebsi declared a state of emergency after the attack and said the country is “at a state of war”. A curfew will be in place in the Tunis region until 5am on Wednesday morning.
“I was on Mohamed V Avenue, about to get into my car, when there was a huge explosion. I saw the bus blow up. There were bodies and blood everywhere,” witness Bassem Trifi told reporters at the scene.
Local journalist Aymen Abderrahman said that “hundreds of police and military” swarmed the area of the attack after the explosion.
Emir Sfaxi, a Tunis-based activist and blogger, described traffic jams and a heavy military presence in the city after the attack.
A government official said initial investigations showed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing a backpack who blew himself as he got onto the bus.
