Police: Palestinian stabs seven people in Tel Aviv attack

World Today

Mideast Israel Palestinians StabbingsIsraeli police officers secure the scene of a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. A Palestinian man stabbed nine people, injuring several seriously, on a bus in central Tel Aviv before he was chased down, shot and arrested, Israeli police said Wednesday, describing the assault as a “terror attack” in the latest in a spate of violence, the worst Israel has seen in almost a decade. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A Palestinian stabbed and wounded seven people on a Tel Aviv commuter bus and in the street in a morning rush-hour attack on Wednesday (January 21) before he was shot by a security officer as he fled, Israeli officials said.

It was the first Palestinian attack reported in the Israeli commercial capital since a soldier was stabbed to death two months ago during a surge of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Still pictures show Israeli medics tending to wounded people at the stabbing scene. Other pictures show Israeli police officers carrying a Palestinian man who is suspected of stabbing on a stretcher.

Police: Palestinian stabs seven people in Tel Aviv attackPassengers on the number 40 bus en route to Tel Aviv University said the assailant, identified by police as a Palestinian from Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, stabbed the driver and then others at the Maariv junction, one of the coastal city’s busiest.

The attacker exited the bus after it slowed to a stop and ran down a street along with panicked passengers and pedestrians. Security camera footage showed him stabbing one woman in the back on the sidewalk, and she collapsed.

Armed prison officers who happened by in another vehicle gave chase and one shot the man in the leg. News photos showed the alleged assailant, whom police said was aged 23, lying face down in the mud, his wrists handcuffed behind him and his jeans stained with blood.

The national ambulance service said seven people were wounded in the stabbing, four seriously.

It was not immediately clear if the suspected attacker, who was taken to hospital for treatment, was affiliated with any Palestinian militant group. Israeli security officials said he cited Israel’s Gaza offensive last summer as one of the reasons he decided to strike.

Story compiled with information from Reuters.