JERUSALEM: Bulldozer driver attacks police car and other vehicles then is shot dead by officers -- and a taxi driver

Record ID: 352975

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Bulldozer driver attacks police car and other vehicles then is shot dead by officers -- and a taxi driver
  • Date: 6th March 2009
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MARCH 5, 2009) (REUTERS) SCENE WHERE BULLDOZER ATTACK OCCURRED BULLDOZER WITH BROKEN WINDOWS BULLDOZER IN STREET, ITS WINDOWS SHATTERED MEDICS WITH WOUNDED ON STRETCHER POLICE AT SCENE DAMAGED POLICE CAR VARIOUS OF BUS WITH SHATTERED WINDOW POLICE OFFICERS WITH DOGS JERUSALEM MAYOR NIR BARAKAT AT SITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JERUSALEM MAYOR NIR BARKAT SAYING: "
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA4O4DBP9ZMJ4BH7LPSMUSQY20T
  • Story Text: The driver of a bulldozer crushed a police car and hit a bus on a busy Jerusalem road on Thursday (March 5) then officers and a taxi driver shot him dead, police and hospital officials said.
    Israel's Army Radio identified the driver as a Palestinian.
    No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident, which came one day after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
    Police and witnesses said the driver of the bulldozer first turned over a police car, crushing in its roof.
    The driver then slammed the police car into a large bus carrying students who were in costume for the Jewish holiday of Purim, Israeli media reported.
    Two police officers, who were inside the vehicle that was crushed, were lightly injured, medics said.
    None of the students on the bus was injured.
    A police spokesman said the bulldozer driver was not carrying any identification.
    Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, said he would recommend that authorities take "the harshest measures we can take by law" against those involved in the attack.

    "Whatever we can do by law. The harshest measures we could take by law, I recommend to take. And this is my message to the government, to the police, to the law and to the world. We must not allow terrorists and their senders to get away with vicious try -- to murder innocent people easily. It must be a world say -- the world must speak with one voice and that is terrorists must be punished and their senders must be punished," Barkat said.
    Israel has previously threatened to demolish the homes of Palestinian attackers.
    Police compared Thursday's attack to three similar incidents last year, two with bulldozers and one with a car.
    In the 2008 incidents, which the Israeli police called terrorism, the drivers were identified as Palestinians from Arab east Jerusalem.
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