At least 12 people have been killed in an explosion targeting a bus carrying presidential guards in the Tunisian capital, the interior ministry said, calling the incident a “terror act”.
The bus was struck 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 until 5am on Wednesday morning.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from the site of the incident, local journalist Aymen Abderrahman said that “hundreds of police and military have swarmed the area”.
“It’s in the heart of downtown – a residential area – and many people who live around here are gathering,” he told Al Jazeera by telephone. “People are crying because it’s the first time it’s happened in downtown ever.
“The blast was heard throughout the city,” Abderrahman said.
Emir Sfaxi, a Tunis-based activist and blogger, said that “there is a lot of confusion”.
“There are a lot of police in the area because it’s near the Ministry of Interior,” he told Al Jazeera
Sfaxi said that many people “are scared. There are traffic jams as everyone is trying to get home quickly”.
Armed groups have targeted Tunisian security forces and civilians in the past, including in the capital and in areas in the country’s central region and on the border with Algeria.
Earlier this week, the interior ministry said that former President Marcef Marzouki was the target of an assassination plot.
(Al Jazeera)
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