An explosion ripped through a crowded marketplace in central Yemen today, killing at least 14 people and injuring around 15 others, witnesses said.
Yemen's news agency Saba quoted a security official as saying 15 people had been killed and 16 injured in the blast. He said teams were still searching for those trapped under the rubble.
One witness said the blast occurred in the early afternoon when dynamite sticks self-ignited at a warehouse in the marketplace in al-Bayda province. He said the explosion also destroyed several warehouses and stores.
Saba said the dynamite in the warehouse was being sold by a local trader for construction purposes. It said an investigation had been launched.
A spate of bombings rocked Yemen in 1998, most of them in the southern port city of Aden. Authorities at the time arrested a number of suspects, mainly from opposition groups, but later released them.
A suicide bombing in Aden last October killed 17 US sailors aboard the destroyer USS Cole.