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2nd LD: One Israeli dead, three injured in Jerusalem stabbing and shooting attack

Xinhua, October 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Israeli man was killed and several others, including his wife and baby, were injured on Saturday evening in a stabbing and shooting attack in Jerusalem's Old City, a police spokesperson told Xinhua.

A Palestinian man stabbed two people, then took over one of his victims' gun and started shooting at passers-by in the Old City of Jerusalem, police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld said.

An Israeli policeman who arrived shortly afterwards shot at the Palestinian attacker and killed him, Rosenfeld told Xinhua.

A Jewish couple in their 40s suffered critical injuries and were evacuated to Jerusalem hospitals. The husband was announced dead later on in the hospital, a spokesperson for the Israeli Emergency Services Magen David Adom told Xinhua.

Their two-year-old baby was wounded from a bullet in his leg, the spokesperson Zaki Heller said, adding that another woman was stabbed in her chest and suffered moderate to serious wounds.

According to the local Channel 10 news, three of the victims were family members making their way to pray at the Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount (or Noble Sanctuary) compound.

Police forces are currently looking for a possible second militant who had possibly taken part in the attacks around east Jerusalem.

The attack comes two days after a Palestinian militant shot and killed an Israeli couple, who were driving in their vehicle in a West Bank road with their four children, who were not harmed in the attack.

Israeli authorities are still looking for the perpetrators of Thursday's attack, and have arrested seven Palestinians in the area of Nablus in the West Bank throughout Saturday.

There has been a mounting surge of violence in Jerusalem, especially in east Jerusalem, over the flashpoint holy site of Temple Mount.

Clashes have been going for weeks between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters, as the latter charge Jewish extremists are trying to change the status quo in the holy site.

Other than clashes, rocks and firebombs hurling have become a daily incident in Jerusalem's environs, as well as sporadic stabbing attacks, especially around Jerusalem's Old City. Endit