Port Sudan hit by deadly blast

A car has exploded in the Sudanese city of Port Sudan killing one person, the country’s news agency says.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A car has exploded in the Sudanese city of Port Sudan killing one person, the country’s news agency says.Witnesses say the blast has left two big craters in the road and the body of the driver completely burned. Local officials say the incident is being investigated.It comes just over a year after a similar incident that killed two people, and which Sudan said was the result of an Israeli missile strike.The blast happened just before 08:00 local time (05:00GMT) on the western edge of Port Sudan town, the AFP news agency reports."I heard a big explosion and I came out and saw a [Toyota] Prado car on fire, and two craters in the ground,” one resident told the news agency.Sudanese TV has been broadcasting pictures of the damaged front of the car. It said an "unknown source” had "attacked a civilian vehicle”.Following the blast in April last year, Sudan said it had irrefutable evidence that Israeli attack helicopters had carried out a missile and machine gun strike. Israel refused to comment.Israeli officials had previously expressed concern about arms smuggling through Sudan, which has close ties with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Sudan’s foreign ministry at the time denied the country was harbouring Islamist militant groups.