British man killed as gunman opens fire on group of tourists
Three other foreigners and a Jordanian tourist police officer were also wounded in the shooting at the Roman theatre in the capital Amman.
An eyewitness described seeing a clean-shaven man in his 30s wielding a gun and shouting “Allahu akbar” — God is great — before opening fire on the tourists at one of the city’s most popular attractions.
The man was identified as Nabeel Ahmed Issa Jaourah, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin. Police are investigating if he was enticed by Islamic militants or terror networks to carry out his mission, and say he has no links to known terror groups.
Mohammad Jawad Ali said he had spoken to one of the injured tourists, who had told him the British man died at the scene.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of a male British national, and there are two British nationals hospitalised, receiving treatment.”
Jordanian Interior Minister Eid al-Fayez said the injured included two British women, a Dutch man, an Australian woman, and a New Zealand woman.
“This is a cowardly terrorist attack, which we regret took place on Jordanian soil,” he said.
He said the attack appeared to be the act of a lone gunman, but police were interrogating the suspect — who was arrested at the scene — to determine his motive.
One of the female survivors described the attack as she lay in a hospital bed.
“We were walking up some stairs at the amphitheatre and a man came up behind us and started to shoot. All I can remember is one of my friends falling over and then a really nice man from a shop came and told us to hide in his store.”
The attack came despite tightened security around tourist attractions and hotels in the wake of terror attacks in Amman last November.
Then three suicide bombers killed 60 people at the Radisson SAS, Days Inn and Grand Hyatt hotels.
