Tunis, Jun 27 (IANS): A series of explosions rocked the Tunisian capital on Thursday, injuring several people, the police said.

Police officials said a suspected terrorist targeted a police patrol on Charles de Gaulle street in downtown Tunis, not far from the heavily guarded French Embassy, Efe news reported.

In the first attack, two officers and a civilian were injured. A second blast followed shortly outside the police's counter-terror department in the Al Gorjani neighbourhood.

The state TV reported a third attack in the coastal city of Sousse, a holiday hotspot in the North African country, but offered no detail on possible number of casualties or injured.

Tunisia, the fourth-largest exporter of extremists to the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Iraq and Syria, had suffered three attacks in 2015 that killed 72 people -- 60 foreign tourists and 12 members of the presidential guard.

The attacks that dented the tourism sector, one of the country's principal economic pillars, were claimed by an IS-affiliated group.