I saw parts of a brain, things I have never seen before. It was terrible. Scores of police cars and ambulances raced through the jammed streets of the Mediterranean metropolis to reach the scene. Bodies covered by white and black tarps lay on the ground in front of the entrance to the nightclub. One of the victims appeared to be a girl in her early teens, wearing a red top, her arms and legs sticking out, platform shoes on her feet.
Israeli medics evacuate a wounded victim.
Hospital officials said 17 Israelis were killed, including two sisters, ages 16 and 18. The explosive contained ball bearings, nails and screws that caused particularly severe injuries when they flew out in all directions. About a dozen cars parked in front of the club were heavily damaged by the blast, their windows shattered and pieces of flesh and blood splattered on them. Victims' personal effects, a crushed case of Tuborg beer and Italian mineral water bottles were scattered in the lot. Friday's blast was the deadliest since a series of suicide bombings by Islamic militants in the spring of 1996.