Chris Burns: Gruesome bus blast scene

CNN's Chris Burns

HAIFA, Israel (CNN) -- The first suicide bombing in Israel in more than a week has claimed at least eight lives and wounded 14 other people on a commuter bus near Haifa.

Reporting from the northern Israeli seaport city, CNN correspondent Chris Burns described the scene Wednesday morning to CNN anchor Paula Zahn.

BURNS: We are on that strip of highway just south of Haifa, where the explosion occurred just after 7 a.m. [Wednesday]. [It was on] an express commuter bus packed with at least 50 people inside that had just left the outskirts of Haifa, the port of Haifa, when the explosion went off.

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According to local police, they say that it was a male suicide bomber with an explosives belt strapped to him. It went off just about one stop after he got on. The explosion, according to witnesses, was so intense it raised the bus off the ground. And as you can see, it shredded at least the front part of that bus.

We found also even BBs on the ground here in this area, which apparently means that the bomb was packed with anti-personnel BBs to cause as much physical harm as possible.

Let's go back here to the highway. We just saw a few moments ago a body retrieval group that had retrieved body parts, not only from the highway here -- we see blood splattered on the ground -- as well as from the field of this kibbutz nearby -- a very, very intense explosion.

So far, authorities say at least eight people [are] dead, but the body count could rise. Because there were so many body parts that were scattered, they are not entirely sure that it was eight people; 14 others [are] in the hospital, three of them in serious condition. ...

The claim of responsibility so far is by the Hamas militant group, according to Al-Jazeera television. However, the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon is blaming front and center Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. This obviously is going to make it much more difficult when Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to arrive here [Thursday] to try to broker some kind of a cease-fire, let alone a peace deal.