An explosion injured at least seven people in an area near the US consulate in Tel Aviv early Friday morning. A man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s were wounded by shrapnel and were taken to the hospital, while the others suffered lighter injuries, according to the Times of Israel.
The blast was preceded by a loud whirring noise, according to eyewitnesses as well as dashcam and security camera footage circulating online. A large number of Israeli police are on the scene, studying the shrapnel and debris to determine whether the blast was caused by a drone, local media reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating the explosion, which it suspects was caused by “an aerial target,” a military term it uses for drones, the Times of Israel wrote, adding that no air sirens were heard ahead of the blast.
מטורף: תיעוד פיצוץ הכטב”מ בעיר תל אביב, שומעים זמזום ואז פיצוץ אדיר!Crazy: Documentation of the UAV explosion in the city of Tel Aviv, you hear a hum and then a huge explosion! https://t.co/DOYFImMPZFpic.twitter.com/wMtqBZHjRg
— יענקי כהן | Yanki Coen (@yankicoen) July 19, 2024
The explosion happened in the air, and the sound carried to nearby towns, police stated. “The blast apparently occurred at some altitude,” Haaretz quoted the police. “We still do not know what it was. Right now, we are clearing the area. There was a lucky escape here.”
Police added that eyewitnesses saw a “red lump” in the sky, which could explain why the explosion didn’t occur in a building or on the ground.
The incident took place less than a few hundred meters from the former US embassy building in Tel Aviv on Shalom Aleichem street, local media reported. However, there has been no official comment from the authorities on the cause of the blast, while the IDF and Tel Aviv police continue to investigate the incident.
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