JERUSALEM?An explosion ripped through a bus on a main highway in Israel’s north on Thursday, and police said at least three people were killed.

An eyewitness, Emanuel Biton, told Army Radio he was driving behind the bus and that he saw the blast “rip the bus into pieces, and things were flying everywhere.” The bus was not full when the explosion happened, he said.

Army Radio said the bomb was apparently carried by a Palestinian suicide bomber, but police said it was too early to determine.

Another eyewitness, Sadi Ovadia, told Israel TV, “There was nothing left of the bus” after the blast.

The bus was near an Israeli military base when the bomb went off, but it was nonmilitary.

Ambulances and police vehicles raced to the scene. Police commander Moshe Waldman told Israel Radio three people were killed on the vehicle and that six others were injured, two critically.