/ 5 March 2009

Jerusalem bulldozer driver killed after ramming vehicles

A bulldozer driver was shot dead on Thursday after he rammed his vehicle into an empty bus and a police van in Jerusalem, police and medics said.

“A bulldozer hit an empty bus and a police van”, near the Malcha shopping mall, said a statement from the Magen David Adom medical rescue service.

“Two people are lightly injured at the site and the bulldozer driver has been shot and killed,” it said.

The driver of the vehicle — whose identity was not immediately known — was shot dead by a passing taxi driver and a police officer who was inside the van.

“I shot the driver and a police officer who was in the van also shot him and killed him,” taxi driver Oz Nahatabi told public radio.

It marks the third such incident in nine months in the Jerusalem.

On July 2, a Palestinian killed three Israelis and wounded 45 more as he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in downtown Jerusalem before being shot dead.

Three weeks later 16 people were wounded in a similar incident, with the attacker also killed. — AFP