Bulldozer Attack on Jerusalem Bus Kills Three

A man seized control of a bulldozer and overturned a bus on a main road in Jerusalem today, killing at least three people before he was shot dead, Israeli police said.

Officials identified the bulldozer driver as a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem with an Israeli identification card and a criminal record. Israel Radio said one of the victims was a woman who had been driving a Toyota.

Israel's national rescue service said at least 22 people were wounded, at least 14 people whom were taken to hospital. At the scene of the incident, injured people sat dazed amid piles of broken glass and blood stains on the ground.

TV pictures showed the single-decker bus lying down on its side on the busy Jaffa Road, near the city's old central bus station and the headquarters of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

At least three other vehicles appeared to have sustained damage, including a van whose entire front section was crushed.

A police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said: "A suspect driving a tractor ran over a number of vehicles and Israelis in the street, on Jaffa Road. Israeli police arrived at the scene. Many people were injured." He described the attack as a terrorist incident.

"I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student, told the Associated Press.

Another witness, Yosef Spielman, said the bulldozer picked up a car "like a toy". "I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy," he said. "All the people were running. They had no chance."

An Arab last carried out an attack in west Jerusalem in March, when a gunmen killed eight students at a religious school before he was shot dead.

Today's attack occurred in an area where Jerusalem is building a new train system. The project has turned many parts of the city into a big construction zone.

The incident comes during a fragile ceasefire between Hamas Islamists in Gaza and Israel.

Danny Seaman, an Israeli government spokesman, said attacks by extremists would not undermine "our desire for peace".