Death and terror end Israelis' planned night of dancing

Israeli medics evacuate a wounded victim from the bombing site early Saturday

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Screams, blood and panic filled the air outside a popular Israeli discotheque after a suicide bomber, who had been mingling with the crowd of young people waiting to get inside, detonated his explosives.

"I was about to enter (the disco), suddenly I looked in the direction of the blast, I saw people thrown backward," 12-year-old Dudi Nachum told Israel Radio.

Ilan Amos, 35, said he saw mangled bodies. "I don't know how to explain it to you, it hurts the heart," according to The Associated Press.

The bomb was strapped to the attacker and spewed out bullets and nails when he detonated it in a crowd of youngsters waiting outside the club, police told Reuters.

ALSO Suicide bombing at Israeli disco kills 17

The explosion killed 17 people. But with some of 86 others seriously injured, the death toll may go higher.

"There were people blown apart, limbs strewn everywhere," Avi, a waiter from a nearby nightclub, told Reuters. Other witnesses spoke of a ball of fire in the middle of the knot of people.

Cars parked near the club in the popular beach area were splattered with blood. Bodies lay under white tarps.

The owner of the Pacha nightclub told CNN that many people at the scene were running and screaming because they feared there might be a second bomb.

Flashing lights and sirens soon brought dozens of ambulances and paramedics to scene, which soon filled with people bandaged or bleeding or wearing braces while laying on stretchers

Women wept and young victims lay groaning and being comforted by rescue workers, Reuters said. Pools of blood and severed limbs covered the pavement.

Radio reports said the bombing took place around 11:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. ET) at the Dolphinarium Beach, near Tel Aviv's hotel district. The area was crowded at the beginning of the weekend, as young people stayed out late in the warm temperatures.

Hours after the bombing, crews were still collecting body parts and cleaning up blood and debris.