IS claims responsibility for Tunisia bus bombing

A bus carrying Tunisia's Presidential guards exploded in Tunis killing 15 people.

More than a dozen people were injured in the attack.

The blast happened when the bus was parked near a main artery in the capital where guard members were typically picked up and dropped off.

Tunisia's Interior Ministry called the explosion a terrorist act and said they were investigating into it.

Following a terrorist attack in Tunisia's capital, Tunis, the President declared a 30-day state of emergency in the country.

President Béji Caïd Essebsi said in a statement that the blast was a cowardly terrorist attack.

He also cancelled his scheduled Switzerland trip and announced a nightly curfew.

The Tunis airport and all tourist sites were closed following the explosion.

The United States condemned the bus blast in Tunisia which killed members of Tunisia's security forces.

US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that they were prepared to help authorities to investigate the attack.

He said that terrorists were trying to induce fear by violence to undermine important gains the Tunisian people had made in pursuit of a democratic, stable and prosperous country.

Tunisian authorities said that the bus explosion in downtown Tunis was a suicide attack.

They found a body at the scene that they believed was that of a suicide bomber.

They also found remnants of an explosives belt near the blast area.

The National Security Council of Tunisia approved the release of money in a counter-terrorism fund that would finance relief projects.

The Islamic State group claimed in a statement that the suicide bombing on a bus in Tunisia was carried out by them.

IS said that Abou Abdallah al-Tounissi, a Tunisian, had boarded the bus wearing an explosive belt.

The statement said that he had boarded it a few hundred metres from the Interior Ministry as it picked up Presidential-guards on their way to work.