At Least Six Dead In Bulgaria Bus Bombing

At least six people have been killed and 32 injured in an explosion on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

The blast, which Bulgaria's interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said was a deliberate attack, happened in a bus close to the airport in the town of Bargas.

The bus was carrying about 40 passengers who had just landed at the Black Sea port.

"At the scene of the incident there are six bodies," Bulgaria's foreign minister, Nikolay Mladenov told his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman.

Mr Mladenov said two people who were seriously wounded are in intensive care, and another 30 people are receiving treatment.

Images seen on Israeli TV showed smoke billowing from the scene - a carpark outside the airport.

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev and senior members of the government rushed to the scene shortly after the bombing.

Gal Malka, an eyewitness, told Israel's Channel 2 TV that the bus was full of Israeli teenagers.

A Bulgarian news agency reported that the town's mayor, Dimitar Nikolov said there was "a very strong explosive that was deliberately placed or brought into the baggage compartment of the bus".

Bulgarian radio said police are investigating two possible causes of the blast - that an explosive device was put in the bus before the tourists boarded or that the explosives were in the tourists' luggage.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Iran for the attack, warning that his country would "respond forcefully".

"All the signs lead to Iran," he said in a statement on the blast. "Israel will respond forcefully to Iranian terror."

Mr Netanyahu noted that the attack follows similar attempts in India, Georgia, Thailand, Kenya and Cyprus.

He said: "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world."

The British foreign secretary, William Hague condemned the attack, as did Barack Obama.

"The full tragedy of the attacks is not yet clear, but I would like to express my condolences to the friends and family of those injured and killed," said Mr Hague.

"These attacks against innocent civilians, including children, are completely outrageous," Mr Obama said.

Sky News' foreign affairs editor, Tim Marshall, said that last year there was a failed attack on Israeli tourists in Thailand and two Iranian men were arrested.

There is also a trial of Hizbollah operatives on-going in Kenya for attempted attacks on Israeli targets, added Marshall.

It is suspected that the attempted attacks are in revenge for the killing of a senior Hizbollah commander.

It is exactly 18 years since the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people.

In 2006, prosecutors in Buenos Aires formally charged Iran and the terrorist group Hizbollah with the bombing, accusing the Iranian authorities of directing Hizbollah to carry out the attack.

In January this year, Israel's foreign ministry warned of a possible terror plot against Israelis in Bulgaria, urging its country's citizens to take extra precautions when travelling there.

It also asked the Bulgarian government to implement extra security measures to ensure that Israeli tourists remain safe.

However, Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon told the country's Channel 2 TV that there had been no advance intelligence of an attack there.

Last week, a suspected Hizbollah attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus was foiled by Cypriot authorities.