Deadly terror attack against Israelis in Bulgaria (updated)

Haaretz is live-blogging. So is the Times of Israel.

From YNet:

A number of casualties were reported in what appears to be a terror attack on an Israeli bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, according to initial reports.

Channel 10 said the blast occurred inside the terminal of Sarafovo Airport.

AFP reports three killed.

The JC:

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has confirmed Israeli tourists have been killed in an explosion on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

Local media in the resort of Burgas claim the bus was outside the Sarafovo airport and was packed with Israelis.

Bulgarian radio said three people had been killed. It is thought at least 20 have been injured.

The explosion is thought to have occurred at around 6pm local time.

Burgas is the second largest resort on the country's Black Sea coast. It is popular with Israeli tourists and is home to a Chabad centre. Israeli teens are known to flock to the resort for their summer holidays.

Israel has previously warned Bulgaria of the threat posed by Hizbollah.

Israeli media has interviews with eyewitnesses who said thatthe explosion was in the luggage compartment of the bus and people were jumping out of the windows to escape.

Of course, Hezbollah is an arm of Iran.

Three days ago YNet had a report by Alex Fishman saying that Hezbollah, frustrated at not being able to successfully kill Israeli diplomats, was ready to target tourists. This was in the wake of the discovery of a plot against Israeli tourists in Cyprus.

There were reports of an unsuccessful bomb attack that targeted Jewish tourists in Bulgaria this past January that was apparently hushed up.

YNet adds in a newer report:

An eyewitness told Channel 2 News that Bulgarian authorities were slow to respond to the event; adding that search and rescue teams and the paramedics "Didn’t seem to care too much. They took a while getting these two small fire-extinguishers to fight a burning bus, and the airport's fire truck took over 15 minutes to get there."

I am told that Israeli media is now reporting 7 killed.

A tweet quotes Israel's Channel 10 as saying it was a suicide bomber. Well, that rules out Mormons.

JPost notes that this is the 18th anniversary of the AMIA bombings in Argentina, done by Hezbollah for Iran.