People look at the wreckage of a car at the scene of a car bomb attack outside the police college in Sanaa Jan. 7.

SANAA — Police in Yemen arrested six people suspected of involvement in Wednesday’s bombing of a police college in Sanaa, the capital’s police chief told Yemeni television on Thursday.

The car bomb, which exploded in the street outside the college, killed 40 people and wounded another 71, according to the latest casualty toll provided by state news agency Saba on Thursday. 

More fugitive suspects were still being pursued, police chief Abdelrazaq al-Muayyid told al-Masirah television, which is owned by members of the powerful Houthi northern rebel clan.

Muayyid gave no further details.

Earlier on Thursday, al-Masirah reported that the suspects had been caught by police in collaboration with the Popular Committees, which are Houthi-led groups of fighters.

The militias have themselves been the target of suspected al-Qaeda attacks in recent weeks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing, but an official source in Yemen’s Supreme Security Committee, cited by Saba, blamed “al-Qaeda terrorist elements” for the attack.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is one of the extremist militant group’s most active wings.

Wednesday’s attack was the second to cause multiple casualties in a week. A suicide bomb last Thursday killed 26 people at a cultural center in Ibb city.