Eleven killed in Jerusalem bus suicide bombing

Eleven people died when a suicide bomber struck during Jerusalem's early morning rush hour.

The explosion happened on bus No 20 in the Kiryat Yovel neighbourhood. The bomber was among the dead, police say.

Officials say many schoolchildren were on the bus.

Children's sandwiches and schoolbooks lay scattered in the street around the devastated bus, Israel Radio reports.

Several bodies still lay near the bus after at least 38 wounded were taken to hospital. Seven of the wounded were in a serious condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first in Jerusalem since August.

"There are students among the wounded," Yeruham Mandola, spokesman for the Magen David Adom paramedics' service, told Israel Radio. He could not say how many of the wounded were schoolchildren.

The explosion in Mexico Street is the first bombing since November 4 when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a shopping mall in central Israel.

The Israeli army has reoccupied most Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank to try and halt the bombings.

David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, condemned the attack. "Palestinian terrorists continue to cling to the bloodshed agenda and they are satisfied only when innocent Israeli lives are taken," he said.