Woman dies in Tel Aviv restaurant blast

One woman was killed and several other people were wounded today in an explosion at a Tel Aviv restaurant, Israeli authorities said.

Police said explosives caused the blast in a lift shaft, not a gas canister as was originally believed.

But they said the circumstances surrounding the explosion, which appeared to have taken place in a lift shaft, remained unclear.

“We have no indication that this was a terrorist attack,” police chief Yossi Sedbon told Army Radio.

He said the woman had died of her wounds in hospital. Several other people were treated for light injuries, he said.

Gunpowder residue was found at the scene, police said, but added that it was still not clear whether the explosion was a Palestinian attack.

During the nearly three-year-old Palestinian uprising, dozens of Palestinian suicide bombers have blown up in public places in Israel, killing and wounding scores of people.