A police officer was killed and eight injured after twin suicide blasts hit the North African country Tunisia late on Thursday, according to the officials.
The first blast occurred before midday when a suicide bomber hit a police patrol vehicle on the corner of Rue Charles de Gaulle and Avenue de France in downtown Tunis, an area of the city busy with pedestrians and not far from the heavily-guarded French Embassy.
Ten minutes after the first blast, a second bomber attacked the police’s counter-terror department in the Al Gorjani neighbourhood of the city, officials said.
“There was a huge explosion which rocked the whole street. People fled running in all directions,” an eyewitness told Efe news.
No group has formally claimed responsibility for the bombings so far.
However, according to the ISIS news agency Amaq, both the bombers were “Islamic State fighters”.
An interior ministry has confirmed that there had been a fatality, minutes after the explosion.
“One of the two seriously injured officers has died,” the ministry said.
“Three civilians have been hospitalised with injuries of varying degrees of gravity,” the ministry added.
Security services quickly cordoned off the scene of the attack and ushered away the onlookers to clear the path for ambulances.