Copycat terrorist "tractor strike" in Jerusalem

Drzz.info ^ | 03 05 2009 | drzz

[drzz]

Terror returned to Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon, when a tractor driver overturned into a police car and rammed into a bus, before he was shot by police and a taxi driver at the scene.

The incident took place a little after 1 P.M. near the popular Malkha shopping mall, on Menachem Begin Boulevard, in southern Jerusalem.

An eye-witness, Shuli Cohen, told Israel Radio that the driver had used the tractor's front blade to flip the police car. The two officers inside were lightly hurt, Israel Police said. Advertisement

Witnesses described a harrowing site of tractor speeding along the highway, dragging the police car and sending it flying into the air.

The cabbie, identified as Dor, told Israel Radio that he chased the driver as he witnessed the attack.

"I saw the police car fly into the air. He flipped it over twice, then continued dragging it toward a bus that was stuck in traffic," he said. He told the radio he fired four shots at the man, wounding him. "Then a policeman came with his M-16 and finished him off finally," he said.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the driver had been seriously wounded, but was not dead. He said policemen fired at the driver after it overturned the police car and hit the bus, which had no passengers at the time.

A witness saw the driver of the tractor being taken away by an ambulance.

Heavy traffic jams were reported in the normally busy area of the capital and authorities asked people to keep away from the scene of the attack.

When asked if the incident would lead to tighter security in Jerusalem, the city's deputy police commander Niso Shahar said that security had been stepped up ahead of the Purim holiday next week, and the attack would be taken into consideration.

This is the fourth time that a vehicle has been used to carry out an attack in the capital. In July 2008, a Palestinian deliberately went on the rampage in a bulldozer on Jaffa Street, killing three people and wounding dozens more. Two weeks later, a resident of East Jerusalem carried out a similar attack, wounding at least 24 people.

In September, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem plowed his car into a crowd of Israel Defense Forces soldiers on their way to the Western Wall. All three were shot dead at the scene.