While most of Tel Aviv had shut down on Wednesday night in preparation for the Jewish festival of Tisha B'Av, many people were still out and about in the Neve Shaanan area when it was by two blasts in quick succession.

I saw about five or six or seven people lying there, their bodies torn apart

Yossi Cohen

"There were two explosions within about half a minute," said Yossi Cohen.

"In the first blast I saw a man fly through the air. I hid straightaway behind an electricity supply box and then there was a second explosion.

"I saw about five or six or seven people lying there, their bodies torn apart," he said.

The area, which surrounds a disused bus station, is home mainly to foreign workers, and at least one of the three people killed in the bombing, and many of the more than 30 injured were foreigners.

It was horrible. I've never seen such a thing in my life

Dutu Raduian

"I came with my friends to buy a beer and suddenly I heard an explosion and I was sprayed with shrapnel on one side and I began to run. Then I heard another explosion and I got hit on the other side," Pavel Kolshevoy told Reuters agency.

One man, Dutu Raduian, was so shocked by the incident he told the Associated Press he would take his family back to Romania.

"It was horrible. Dead people were everywhere and the injured were screaming. I've never seen such a thing in my life," he said.

Some seemed baffled that they had become the target of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are not doing any harm," said 21-year-old Karin Timbo from South Africa, "we have just come here to work".