/ 2 July 2008

Dozens hurt in apparent attack in Jerusalem

A tractor slammed into a commuter bus, other vehicles and pedestrians in Jerusalem on Wednesday, causing dozens of injuries in an apparent deliberate attack, police said.

Israel’s Channel Two television said at least one person was killed and some 30 were wounded.

”A suspect driving a tractor ran over a number of vehicles and Israelis in the street, on Jaffa Road. Israeli police arrived at the scene. Many people were injured,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.

Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, where a single-decker commuter bus, its side slashed by the tractor, stood on its side in one of Jewish West Jerusalem’s main streets.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said there were dozens of casualties.

At least three other vehicles appeared to sustain damage, including a van whose entire front section was crushed.

A radio reporter at the scene said after the tractor hit the vehicles, a man climbed onto its cab and shot at its driver, apparently an Arab, several times.

”I saw the tractor’s shovel turn to the bus and deliberately hit it. It hit other vehicles as well,” another Israel Radio reporter said.

The driver’s condition was not immediately known.

An Arab last carried out an attack in West Jerusalem in March, when a gunmen killed eight students at a religious school, before he was shot dead. – Reuters