( AFP ) - Three people were killed and four wounded when a bomb exploded late Tuesday near the Ethiopian foreign ministry in central Addis Ababa, police told state-run radio.
"Three people died when a bomb exploded on a minibus," federal police official Tesfaye Meressa told the radio. "Two people also sustained serious injuries while another two were lightly wounded."
The police official added that an investigation was being conducted into the blast, which witnesses said took place at around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT), but he did not elaborate on who might be behind the attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.
"I was in the area when the blast went off and this minibus was blown to pieces," one eyewitness who asked not to be named told an AFP reporter at the scene.
The charred minibus, a white Toyota with an Addis Ababa number plate, was located less than 50 yards from the main entrance of the foreign ministry.
"There was an explosion on a minibus. There are some casualties and most probably some fatalities. It really looks like a terrorist attack," said a government official who asked not to be named.
All streets leading to the foreign ministry were sealed off by federal police.
Three people were killed and 18 wounded in bomb blasts at petrol stations in Addis Ababa on April 14.
The authorities had accused the separatist Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which alongside the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea, are routinely blamed for such attacks.