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(TUNIS, Tunisia) – A suicide bomber injured nine people, mostly police officers, on a busy street in the Tunisian capital on Monday afternoon, officials said.
This 30-year-old woman unleashed the explosion in Tunis shortly before 2 pm (13:00 GMT) on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, announced the Ministry of the Interior.
The bomber, who was previously unknown to the authorities, blew himself up near a police patrol, according to a ministry statement. He said eight police officers and one civilian were injured. Apart from the bomber, no other deaths have been reported.
An on-site AP reporter saw ambulances arrive to take the wounded to the hospital. The avenue, as well as several adjacent streets, was cordoned off by the police. Habib Bourguiba Avenue is considered the cultural, political and economic heart of Tunis – and is sometimes called the Champs-Élysées of Tunisia.
Tunisian FM radio Mosaic reported that the attacker was wearing a homemade bomb belt containing a small amount of explosives. The station cited a security source it did not name. The body of the bomber remained largely intact after the explosion.
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi described the bombing as a terrorist attack, according to reports in Germany, where he was attending an investment conference.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Mosaique FM said the bomber was coming from the Mahdia area in eastern Tunisia, and that security services had burst at her home after the attack.
The Tunisian authorities are on maximum alert in recent years as a result of a series of attacks, including a shootout at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in 2015, killing 22 people, including many European tourists . Three months later, an Islamic extremist attack in the seaside resort of Sousse killed 38 people, mainly British tourists.
In November of the same year, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus carrying members of the Tunisian presidential guard, killing 12 people on a Tunis highway. The Islamic State group then claimed responsibility.
