A bomb has ripped through a US abortion clinic, killing an off-duty police officer and critically injuring a nurse.

Abortion rights activists say it is the first fatal clinic bombing in US history.

The explosion happened on Thursday morning at the New Women's Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

The clinic after the bomb

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed that the explosion was a bomb.

Fearing a second device could detonate, authorities evacuated students from a nearby university dormitory.

An FBI spokesman said the dead person was an off-duty police officer. The blast blew out windows in the clinic.

Windows of an office building across the street were also shattered.

The blast occured a week after 25th anniversary of the US Supreme Court legalising abortion in 1973. But it has become a contentious issue in the US with Christian fundamentalists wanting to see abortions banned completely.

Recent violence by anti-abortion demonstrators has included the killing of two doctors and a large number of bombings.

A year ago, two bombs went off an hour apart at a clinic in Atlanta injuring six people. That case is unsolved.

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