Nine stabbed on Tel Aviv bus in suspected terrorist attack
A suspected terrorist stabbed at least nine people on the 40 bus line in Tel Aviv near the Maariv junction on Wednesday morning, Israel Police reported.
Two of the victims were seriously injured and several others suffered moderate injuries, Magen David Adom said. Others at the scene were treated for shock.
The injured were evacuated to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and Ichilov Hospital at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv.
The attacker fled on foot but was shot and neutralised by police and is being questioned. Police said the attacker is a 23-year-old man from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, illegally residing in Israel.
Tel Aviv police chief Bentzi Sau said the attacker, reportedly a resident of the Tulkarem West Bank who had entered Israel illegally, boarded the bus about 400 meters away from where the incident began. He first attacked the driver, then began stabbing a number of bus passengers.
MDA paramedic Shai Pinhas, who arrived first at the scene of the attack, reported that he “saw a bus surrounded by tumult. There were wounded people walking around, some of them outside of the bus and two of them inside. Everyone was fully conscious but with stab wounds to the chest and extremities.”
Police beefed up security in the city to help locate possible accomplices, and have asked the public to increase awareness.
Police are continuing their investigation.
BEN HARTMAN/JPOST.COM
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