Deadly Bulldozer Rampage In Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Authorities say a Palestinian bulldozer driver plowed into a string of vehicles on a busy Jerusalem street Wednesday. Two people were killed and dozens wounded before the driver was shot dead by police.

Traffic was halted and hundreds of people fled through the streets in panic as medics treated the wounded. In a statement, police say a “terrorist” carried out the attack but give no further details.

One witness says he saw “a guy going crazy.”

At the scene of the attack, two cars were flattened and a third was overturned. One bus was overturned and another was heavily damaged.

Injured people sat dazed on the ground amid piles of broken glass and blood stains on the street. A baby had blood all over its face, and the driver of the bulldozer was slumped motionless over the steering wheel.

A spokesman for the Israeli government calls Wednesday’s deadly bulldozer attack a “senseless act of murderous violence.”

Three Palestinian militant groups took responsibility for the attack, but Israeli police referred to the attacker as a “terrorist” acting on his own. Israel’s police chief says, “It looks as if it was a spontaneous act.”

Major Israeli retaliation appears unlikely given the police chief’s claim that the attacker acted alone.

Friends of the attacker’s family say he was a devout Muslim with no known ties to militant groups. One family friend says everybody’s in shock.