Morocco says Marrakesh blast terrorist act caused by explosive device

Morocco said on Friday a bomb that killed one day earlier 15 people, many of them foreigners, in its busiest tourist destination was a terrorist act.

The blast ripped through a cafe overlooking Marrakesh's Jamaa el-Fnaa square, a spot often packed with foreign tourists, at lunch-time on Thursday.

The Moroccan Interior Ministry issued a statement saying seven of the 15 dead had so far been identified. They included two French citizens, two Canadians, a Dutch national and two Moroccans.

"Preliminary investigation ... suggests that this was a terrorist act caused by an explosive device," the official MAP news agency quoted Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui as saying.

Two Marrakesh residents who were near the square told Reuters the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, but there was no confirmation of this and no immediate claim of responsibility.

Quoting an unnamed security official familiar with the investigation, the independent news portal Lakome.com also said it was a suicide attack. According to the portal's source, the bomber was freed from prison two months ago after having been sentenced to eight years in jail for rape.