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1st LD: Five injured in vehicular attack in Jerusalem

Xinhua, March 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least five people, including four Israeli female police officers, were injured Friday morning in what appeared to be a militant run-over attack in east Jerusalem, police and emergency medical service said.

Israeli police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed to Xinhua that several people were wounded after being hit by a car in east Jerusalem and police units are still investigating the incident.

Zaki Heller, spokesman for Israel's emergency medical service, told Xinhua that of the five people wounded three were in moderate condition and two were in light condition and all have been evacuated to hospitals.

A car ran over the victims when they were crossing the street near a border police post, local media reported, adding that as the car drove on, a security guard and officer ran after the car and shot at it.

The driver then exited the vehicle with an axe or knife and was shot by the security guard of the police post, said the report, quoting eyewitnesses' accounts.

According to Heller, the driver was in serious condition and has also been taken to a local hospital.

A local news website reported that the driver was a resident of Ras al-Amud, an Arab village in east Jerusalem.

There have been several vehicular attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent months, as tensions have been simmering and mounting in Jerusalem and the West Bank between Jews and Palestinians.

In August last year, a Palestinian from east Jerusalem ran over and killed one Israeli and injured seven more. The Palestinian was shot and killed by an Israeli policeman. In October, another Palestinian from east Jerusalem ran over eight people, killing two people.

Another similar attack took place in November in Jerusalem, killing two people and injuring 13, with the driver killed at the scene.

This wave of violence started after Jewish extremists killed a 15 year-old Palestinian boy from east Jerusalem in July, following the kidnap and killing of three Jewish teens by Palestinian militants in Hebron, southern West Bank.

There are some 300,000 Palestinians living in east Jerusalem, in territories Israel annexed following the 1967 Mideast War. They have permanent residencies but cannot vote or be elected in the Israeli elections. Endit