Three injured in Tel Aviv knife attack

A Palestinian armed with a knife stabbed three people in Tel Aviv early today, in what police described as a terror attack.

The attacker tried to enter the Tarabin bar and restaurant along the coast in south Tel Aviv at around 2am (midnight Irish time), said police spokeswoman Shlomit Hertzberg. He struggled with a security guard and stabbed him in the neck.

The owner of the restaurant threw a chair at him, and the attacker began to flee along the seaside promenade, chased by the guard and owner. The attacker stabbed two more people, including a woman who was critically injured, before the guard shot the Palestinian in the legs, Hertzberg said.

The guard and the owner held the attacker down until police arrived.

Rescue services said another of the wounded was in a serious condition, and the third was slightly wounded.

Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon said the incident was “definitely a terror attack”. It was the first Palestinian attack in an Israeli city since the main Palestinian groups called a temporary halt to attacks against Israelis on June 29.