Suicide Bomber at Israel Bus Station Hurts 9 : Mideast: The explosion occurs at rush hour on a highway near Jerusalem. Most injuries are reported to be light.

A suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body set off the charge at a busy bus station at the western entrance to Jerusalem today, killing himself and wounding a number of people, police said.

Israel Radio reported that the explosion took place at 6:20 a.m. near the Binyanei Haooma convention center on the highway to Tel Aviv. The radio report said the explosion occurred at the start of rush hour and that nine people were wounded. The report said most of the injured appeared to be lightly hurt.

“I sat at the bus stop and five meters (5 1/2 yards) away I hear a boom and glass all over the place and food and stuff flying all over the place. The guy was in the street, everyone’s crying and everyone’s going nuts. It’s crazy,” a young male witness said.

“I saw a man without legs and arms,” he said.

Another witness said: “I had just found a seat in the little bus stop and I just walked away, five feet away, and all of a sudden I hear a massive explosion and I turned around and I see glass everywhere.

“The station I had just been sitting in two minutes ago was blown up. I see a guy lying on the floor, on the road, he had no legs,” the second witness said.

Police said the bomber was wearing a belt filled with explosives.

Buses are a main mode of transportation in Israel, and every day large numbers of commuters gather at the bus station in front of the convention center.

A series of attacks carried out by Islamic militants in October and November claimed the lives of more than 30 Israelis and threatened to stall negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel over the expansion of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank.