Woman bomber wounds nine in first Tunisia suicide attack since 2015

A woman suicide bomber blew herself up near police vehicles on a busy street in the centre of the Tunisian capital, injuring at least nine people, after a three-year break in such attacks.

Police forensic examiners inspect the body of a woman who allegedly blew herself at Habib Bourguiba avenue, Tunis. Source: EPA

Ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag told AFP that all but one of the casualties were police, after a strong explosion rocked the upmarket Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis.

Ambulances arrived swiftly at the scene, which was cordoned off by security forces. Shops lowered their shutters and cafes emptied as panic gripped passersby.

An AFP photographer saw the bomber's body, apparently mostly intact, lying on the ground under one of the neatly-trimmed box trees that line the avenue.

The interior ministry, in a statement, identified the assailant as a 30-year-old woman with no known extremist affiliations, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Shortly before the blast, a small group of demonstrators had held a protest in the avenue against the killing near Tunis last week of a teenager by a customs agent.

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