Five injured as suicide bomber on a motorcycle blows himself up in attack on US Embassy in Tunisia

At least one militant on a motorbike blew himself up outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia on Friday wounding five police, local media reported, in the country's most serious apparent attack since the summer.

Embassy officials confirmed the attack in a tweet on its official Twitter feed, and urged people to avoid the area.

There was a scorched motorbike and a damaged police vehicle a few feet from the embassy's main gate, while at least one stray limb lay in a pool of blood on the road.

A helicopter whirled overhead and large numbers of police and forensics officers gathered at the scene.

Police and forensic experts gather at the scene of an explosion near the US embassy in the Tunisian capital Tunis. A badly damaged Fiat 500 hatchback can be seen with its front windshield shattered not far from a stray limb lying in the road

A Tunisian official walks across the road surrounded by debris which filled the street along with a dismembered limb

Police and forensics teams at the site of the blast in the Tunisian capital on Friday morning

Radio Mosaique, a local radio station, reported that the attacker had injured five police officers when blowing himself up. The station also reported that there may have been a second perpetrator.

Sirens could be heard on the major highway linking the Lac district, where the embassy is located, with Tunis and suburbs in the north.

Last summer, Islamic State said it was behind three militant blasts in the capital, including one near the French embassy that killed a policeman and another that wounded five people during a security operation to detain a suspect.

A wide police cordon was set up outside the US Embassy this morning following the blast. Islamic State carried out three blasts in the capital last summer 

Tunis residents stand on a road, following a reported explosion, near the U.S. embassy in Tunis, Tunisia

Tunisia's critical tourism sector is highly vulnerable to militant incidents and was devastated after two major attacks in 2015, which killed scores of visitors at a beach resort and a popular museum.

Diplomats who have worked with Tunisia on its security capacity say it has grown more effective in preventing and responding to militant attacks in recent years. 

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8082591/Five-injured-suicide-bomber-motorcycle-blows-attack-Embassy-Tunisia.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top