'Three dead' in Addis Ababa blast

The bomb went off fairly close to the Foreign Affairs Ministry

Three people have been killed and nine wounded in a bomb explosion on a minibus in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, police say.

The blast occurred at 1930 (1630 GMT) not far from the Ethiopian foreign ministry. All the dead and wounded were travelling on the bus, police say.

No group has claimed the attack. Last month, three people died in explosions at two petrol stations in the city.

Ethiopia blamed them on the Eritrean backed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

They alongside the Ogaden National Liberation Front Eritrea are often blamed for such attacks.

Tensions between the two countries stem from Ethiopia's failure to hand over the disputed border town of Badme, which a UN-backed commission awarded to Eritrea.

Eritrea wants the international community to put pressure on Ethiopia to withdraw.

The two countries fought a bloody war between 1998 and 2000.

Witnesses spoke of seeing bodies pulled from the wreckage of a minibus.

"I was in the area when the blast went off and this minibus was blown to pieces," an unnamed eyewitness told AFP news agency.

"I saw maybe three or four bodies taken away," an unnamed taxi driver told Reuters news agency.

"Three people were killed and nine seriously injured by an explosion from a device planted by suspected terrorists inside a minibus taxi," police spokesman Densash Hailu told Reuters.