Israel blast kills two

A powerful explosion in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya has killed at least two people; more than thirty others have been injured, some seriously.

Rescue workers said the explosion, at an open-air market near a bus station, appeared to have been a bomb blast.

Police have sealed-off the area and say they have evacuated local Arabs in a bid to prevent reprisal attacks.

No group has said it carried out the attack but a police official is quoted as saying a suicide bomber is believed to be among the the dead.

The BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says suspicion is centred on the militant Palestinian group, Hamas, which says its members are poised to carry out suicide attacks once the prime minister-elect, Ariel Sharon, takes office. There have been four bomb attacks in Israel since the start of the year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service