At least six people were killed and several injured on Monday after two attackers opened fire on a busy bus stop in Jerusalem, Israeli officials said, marking the deadliest attack in the city in more than two years.
The gunmen, who arrived at the junction in a vehicle carrying weapons, ammunition and a knife, shot at dozens of people waiting near buses in the area.
“I saw people falling or getting hurt while trying to escape,” eyewitness Elazar Toledano told Reuters. Toledano said it took people a few seconds to understand what was happening after the first burst of gunfire. “Someone suddenly shouted ‘Terror attack!’ and people started running.”
The suspected attackers were killed by an Israeli combat soldier and a civilian at the site, prompting calls by far-right ministers for the arming of more civilians in Israel. Police identified the gunmen as Muthanna Omar, 20, and Muhammad Taha, 21, who are both from villages just outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.
One Spanish national was among the six killed, according to the Spanish Foreign Ministry. Twenty people were injured, according to Israel police.
Israeli special forces, ambulances and rescue workers rushed to the attack site where bloodstained pavements were littered with shattered glass from bus windows damaged in the shooting.
“When I first came to the area I saw a lot of people laying down in the street bleeding,” Fadi Dekaidek, one of the paramedics for Israel’s emergency services Magen David Adom, told CNN.
CNN
