JERUSALEM: A car bomb exploded near the Israeli defence ministry in Tel Aviv on Thursday, injuring several people, in what police said was an incident not linked to militant groups.

The spokesperson for the police, Micky Rosenfeld said Thursday that he believed the explosion near a bus was criminally motivated, though he could not definitively rule out that it was political violence.

“A car bomb exploded in Tel Aviv. Apparently it is a criminal incident, a settling of accounts,” he told AFP.

A spokesperson for the Rescue services, Zaki Heller said that the preliminary reports from the scene indicated that seven to 10 people were wounded in the explosion. However, he added, there were no serious injuries reported.