You are in > manchester.com  > News > Bulldozer attack in Jerusalem kills at least four

International affairs

Bulldozer attack in Jerusalem kills at least four

02/07/2008

At least four people have been killed and 36 more injured after a man drove a bulldozer into a bus in Jerusalem.

Witnesses are reported as saying the bulldozer drove through the city's traffic before ploughing into the crowded public bus.

The driver was eventually shot dead after a police officer climbed into the cab of the bulldozer.

His body was dragged from the bulldozer and later examined by forensic teams.

"I saw the tractor ramming a car on Jaffa Road, people started to shout and I came out the bank and I saw the truck. I shot the driver and the truck stopped," a security guard at a building in the area is quoted as saying.

An ambulance service spokesperson said that seven people are in a critical condition and four have been confirmed dead at the scene.

A car has also been left crushed on the side of Jaffa Road.

Reports suggest the driver was an Israeli Arab, with no formal links to terrorism, and there has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

The office of the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert described the incident as a terrorist attack and described it as "an act of senseless murderous violence".

Much of Jerusalem has now been shut down and police have placed the city on high alert.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfield told CNN: "We believe he acted on his own and tried to kill as many people as possible.

"If he would have continued ... he would have made his way into an open market, hundreds of people doing shopping there ... and this could have been [an] even worse terrorist attack than we have experienced today."

Media reports claim Gaza residents began pelting Egyptian border police with stones at Rafah later in the day.