Five killed, 40 injured in bus bombing in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv (Agencies): Five people were killed and more than 40 injured on Thursday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself to pieces in a bus in downtown Tel Aviv, police said, a day after another kamikaze killed a policeman in northern Israel.

The second human bomb in as many days buried a six-week period of calm, as both Israel and Palestinian groups warned of a new wave of attacks promised by hardliners ahead of the second anniversary of the uprising which has claimed more than 2,500 lives.

The powerful bomb went off around 1:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. Jakarta time) in the central Allenby Street area, a busy shopping area full of cafes. The bus was gutted by the powerful blast and its front mangled and blackened.

"The attack on board a Tel Aviv bus killed five people and injured 40, eight of them seriously," said the city's deputy police commander, David Krauze.

"Apparently it was a suicide bombing. The injured have all been evacuated to hospital," he said. It was not immediately clear if the toll of five included the suicide bomber.

"We are searching the area to make sure there are no more bombs around here," he added, as policemen with sniffer dogs scoured the streets, packed with ambulances, policy cars and armed security officers.

An ambulance service spokesman said there were 49 injured, 10 of them seriously.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the suicide bombing that killed at least five people in central Tel Aviv on Thursday and denounced all attacks on Palestinian or Israeli civilians.

"The Tel Aviv attack and all other attacks against civilians completely contra diet the (Palestinian) national interests and give (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government and his occupation army suicient pretext to kill and to suppress," the Authority said in a statement.

The European Union also condemned the suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv Thursday as a "morally repugnant" act that would undermine peace efforts in the bloodstained Middle East.

"I condemn with the strongest terms today's atrocious bomb attack against a bus in Tel Aviv," said the EU's foreign envoy Javier Solana. offering his condolences lo the Israeli government and the relatives of the victims.

A political leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas told AFP he expected a new wave of suicide bombings in Israel after a kamikaze killed five people in a bus in downtown Tel Aviv.

"The martyr operations will continue against the Zionists. we are defending our people The resistance will escalate," said Abdel Aziz Rantissi.

Mohammad al-Hindi, a senior loader of Islamic Jihad which claimed Wednesday's attack, said the latest blast "proves that our people will not submit, however great are the murders, destruction and collective punishment" carried out by Israel.

Neither claimed Thursday's attack on behalf of his group.

Israeli government spokes man Avi Pazner told told AFP "We are definitely facing a major drive by all Palestinian terrorist organization," and added, "We will do whatever it takes to stop this new wave."

Hours earlier Israeli police chief Shlomo Aharonishki had warned, "The past weeks have given a false impression of calm, while terrorism has not dropped its guard and there have been constant attempts to strike."

He congratulated the security forces on having succeeded in foiling most recent attacks, thereby reducing casualties and damage.