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Witnesses described scenes of mayhem, with security guards and police opening fire on the tractor as it moved several hundred metres down the street past crowds of screaming pedestrians.
Photo: Israeli Foreign Ministry
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LONDON/JERUSALEM (AFP)---Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband called the terrorist attack which killed three people on Wednesday in Jerusalem an "horrific act.”
"Our first thought is for the victims and the relatives of the victims,” he added.
A Palestinian assailant killed the three people and wounded 45 more as he ploughed a bulldozer into buses and cars in Jerusalem before being shot dead by Israeli police.
National police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld described the rampage in the heart of the Holy City as a terrorist act by a 30-year-old man from occupied east Jerusalem who was worked at a construction site near the scene of the attack.
Chaos erupted as the heavy vehicle barrelled along the busy Jaffa Road, smashing into two crowded public buses, overturning one of them, and ramming other vehicles, reducing one car to a mangled wreck.
Several people opened fire at the man driving the earthmover and at least two policemen jumped onto the vehicle, emptying several rounds into the driver and leaving him slumped over the wheel.
The attack was the first in Jerusalem since a Palestinian gunman shot eight Jewish students at a rabbinical school in March.
"We have four people dead so far, including the driver of the earthmover, and 45 wounded, three of them seriously," said Yeroham Mendola, a spokesman for the Magen David Adom emergency services. He said a baby was among the wounded.
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen told reporters the attack appeared to be a "spontaneous incident" carried out by a father of two who had a criminal past but no known links to armed groups.
He said police were looking into whether the man had "received instructions" from others.
Police identified the attacker as Hussam Tarysir Dwayat and questioned family members and neighbours in the Arab community of Sur Baher where he lived.
The Palestinian movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip called the attack "the natural result of continuing Israeli aggression and crimes against our people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem."
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem, with security guards and police opening fire on the tractor as it moved several hundred metres down the street past crowds of screaming pedestrians.
"There were two policemen on the truck and I climbed onto the truck and saw the attacker leaning forward on the steering wheel and driving into another car," said Eli Misrahi, a member of an elite police unit. "Then I fired two rounds and killed him."
Several dazed people with bloody wounds milled around as sobbing commuters called loved ones on their mobile phones.
