AL QUDS (occupied), June 19: A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in occupied Al Quds on Wednesday, killing at least seven other people, including an Israeli guard.

This was the second suicide bombing in the holy city in two days. On Tuesday a suicide bomber killed 19 people on a crowded commuter bus.

“The bomber ran to the bus stop. Police officers chased him. When he reached the bus stop he detonated a powerful bomb,” a senior police official said.

The blast took place in the early evening rush hour at a bus stop in the northern French Hill neighbourhood of the city, near Israel’s national police headquarters.

Television footage showed the bodies of several people lying by the concrete bus stop. The ground was littered with pieces of human flesh and piles of shredded paper and clothing. The pavement next to the bus stop was streaked with blood.

Several bags, including a backpack, lay on the ground. Medics treated the wounded and police sappers searched for more explosives.

Israel Radio said at least 35 people were wounded in the attack, eight of them critically.

The White House responded swiftly to the attack — the second suicide bombing in Jerusalem in two days — by saying that President George W. Bush’s Middle East policy speech laying out the path to a Palestinian state would be delayed.—Reuters\AFP