At least 10 people are thought to have been injured in a bomb blast on a bus in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

The explosion took place across from the military headquarters –  on the eighth day of an Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately condemned the explosion as a “terrorist attack”.

Police are investigating whether an explosive was planted on the vehicle or whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

The blast happened at around noon in one of the coastal city’s busiest hubs, near the Tel Aviv Museum and an entrance to the Kirya, Israel’s national defence headquarters.

Television footage showed pictures of a smoke-filled bus, charred inside with its windows blown out.

The last time Tel Aviv was hit by a serious bomb blast was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people at a sandwich stand near the city’s old central bus station.