An explosion in a busy cafe in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh has killed at least 18 people and wounded several others, according to local officials.
 
Moroccan officials said on Thursday that they suspect the attack in the heart of the country's main tourist destination was the work of a suicide bomber.

"According to the information I have, it could have been perpetrated by a suicide bomber," an official in the regional governor's office told the AFP news agency.

"We found nails in one of the bodies," added the official, who was in a hospital where some of the bodies were taken.

The interior ministry said that foreigners were among 18 people killed and 20 wounded in the blast that rocked Argana cafe in the city's main Jamaa el-Fna square.

Quoting authorities, the state-run 2M television channel said the dead comprised six French nationals, five Moroccans and four foreigners whose nationality it did not give.