Police in Yemen have arrested six people suspected of involvement in Wednesday’s bombing of a police college in Sanaa.

Police in Yemen have arrested six people suspected of involvement in Wednesday's bombing of a police college in Sanaa, the capital's police chief told Yemeni television on Thursday.

The car bomb, which exploded in the street outside the college, killed 40 people and wounded another 71, according to the latest casualty toll provided by state news agency Saba on Thursday. The authorities have blamed al Qaeda militants.

More fugitive suspects were still being pursued, police chief Abdelrazaq al-Muayyid told al-Masirah television, which is owned by members of the powerful Houthi northern rebel clan.

Earlier on Thursday, al-Masirah reported that the suspects had been caught by police in collaboration with the Popular Committees, which are Houthi-led groups of fighters.

The militias have themselves been the target of suspected al Qaeda attacks in recent weeks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing but an official source in Yemen's Supreme Security Committee, cited by Saba, blamed "al Qaeda terrorist elements" for the attack.

Wednesday's attack was the second to cause multiple casualties in a week. A suicide bomb last Thursday killed 26 people at a cultural centre in Ibb city.