Digger driver shot dead after Jerusalem rampage

A Palestinian was shot dead after going on the rampage in Jerusalem in a mechanical digger today, the second such attack in a month.

The man, from east Jerusalem, rammed three cars and a bus wounding four people before he was stopped.

The attack was in a busy part of central Jerusalem, a few hundred yards from the luxury hotel where US presidential candidate Barack Obama is due to stay tonight as he begins a visit to Israel.

Police said a civilian driving nearby saw what was happening, jumped out of the car and shot the driver, bringing traffic to a halt.

A border policeman who raced to the scene also shot the driver.

Police sealed off possible escape routes into predominantly Arab east Jerusalem and were searching for two suspects who fled the scene, a spokesman said.

The driver of the bus said he was chased by the assailant who raised the digger’s shovel as he attacked.

“I was driving on the main road when the (construction vehicle) hit me in the rear, on the right hand side,” the bus driver told local TV.

“After I passed him he turned round, made a U-turn and rammed the windows twice with the shovel. The third time he aimed for my head, he came up to my window and I swerved to the right, otherwise I would have gone to meet my maker,” he said.

Witness Moshe Shimshi said the driver, who was wearing a large, white skullcap commonly worn by religious Muslims, slammed into the side of the bus, then sped away and went for a car.

“He didn’t yell anything, he just kept ramming into cars,” Mr Shimshi said.

The driver then headed for cars waiting at a red light “and rammed into them with all his might,” he added.

Israeli rescue services said they had evacuated one person whose leg was partially severed.

“This was another attempt to murder innocent people in a senseless act of terrorism,” said a government spokesman. “All people who believe in peace and reconciliation must unequivocally condemn this attack. Unfortunately, it is clear that we as a society will have to remain vigilant against terrorism.”

Minutes after the attack, the driver, wearing shorts and black shoes, was sprawled backward in the digger’s cabin, his legs dangling lifelessly.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski said: “They keep on inventing ways to attack us. Every work tool has become a weapon.”

The assault was similar to an attack earlier this month, when another Palestinian from east Jerusalem ploughed a bulldozer into a string of vehicles and pedestrians on another busy Jerusalem street about three miles away. Three people were killed and dozens of others were wounded before an off-duty soldier shot the driver dead.

The three latest attacks in Jerusalem have been carried out by Palestinians from the city’s eastern sector.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, along with the West Bank, and annexed it. The 208,000 Palestinians who live there make up less than a third of the city’s population. They are not Israeli citizens but carry Israeli ID cards that allow them freedom of movement throughout Israel, unlike West Bank Palestinians.

Many east Jerusalem Palestinians work in construction in the Jewish parts of the city.