Blast in Moroccan cafe kills 14, including foreigners

A bomb tore through a busy cafe frequented by foreigners in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Thursday, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than a dozen others, Moroccan officials said.  

The blast, which occurred around lunchtime in the central Djemaa el Fna Square, appeared to be a attack by a suicide bomber on a popular destination in the tourist-filled city, according to a senior Moroccan intelligence official.

Police and security officials were investigating the nature and cause of the blast. The Moroccan government characterized it as a criminal act but stopped short of describing it as terrorism, New York Times reports.

"Analysis of the early evidence collected at the site of the blast that occurred on Thursday at a cafe in Marrakesh confirms the theory of an attack," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency.

The blast in the iconic Jamaa el-Fna square is Morocco's deadliest bombing in eight years. Earlier reports suggested that the blast may have been caused by a gas canister catching fire. Witnesses reported rescue services pulling casualties from the cafe, Telegraph.co.uk reports.