This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A suicide bombing has rocked the main avenue in central Tunis, injuring at least nine people.

The powerful explosion, detonated by a 30-year-old female bomber, targeted a group of police officers on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the Tunisian capital.

According to the Tunisian interior ministry and eyewitness reports, the attack took place just before 2pm when the woman approached a group of officers and set off her device. An interior ministry spokesman said all but one of the casualties were police.

Some local media reports said the attacker detonated explosives she was carrying close to a police vehicle.

Video and photos on social media showed smoke rising above buildings on the avenue and police and emergency services attending to the wounded. Pictures also showed a body lying on the pavement, believed to be that of the bomber.

Officials in Tunis said the attacker, from the Mahdia region of eastern Tunisia, and was previously unknown to security services.

Mohamed Ekbal bin Rajib, a witness to the attack, told Reuters: “I was in front of the theatre and heard a huge explosion and saw people fleeing.”

The bombing brings to an end a prolonged period of relative calm in Tunisia since a series of militant attacks targeting tourists and claimed by Islamic State caused the near collapse of the country’s tourism sector three years ago.

In 2015, 21 people were killed during a hostage siege in the national museum, the Bardo in Tunis, and a gunman killed 38 people – including 30 Britons – on a resort beach.

The interior ministry said Monday’s blast occurred in front of the Palmarium shopping centre and municipal theatre on the first day of school holidays.

The boulevard where the attack took place is in the very heart of Tunis. Offices, cafes, shops and hotels line the broad thoroughfare, which is often crowded with passersby. It was a centre of demonstrations in Tunis during the Arab spring in 2011.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The suspected suicide bomber’s body is surrounded by a police cordon. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Sporadic violence has continued in Tunisia since 2015, but most of the incidents have taken place in an area close to the Algerian and Libyan borders, where militants have launched attacks on security forces.

Tunisia is one of the few Arab democracies and was the only country to throw off a long-serving autocrat during the Arab spring popular revolts without triggering large-scale unrest or civil war.

Several rounds of elections have taken place since the Arab spring, including local elections this year that passed off largely peacefully.