Six civilians injured in Petah Tikva market after shooting spree by Palestinian terrorist, who was subdued by shopkeepers and bystanders then turned over to Border Police.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, ELIYAHU KAMISHER
Six people were lightly wounded after a shooting and stabbing attack at an open market in the central Israeli town of Petah Tikva on Thursday afternoon.
Police said an 18-year-old from Nablus open fired on a bus at the entrance to the market on Hirsch street at around 4:45 p.m. and then ran to a sewing shop and stabbed someone before he was stopped by civilians and later arrested by police. The suspect was arrested on Montefiore Street with a weapon in hand according to Central District Police Spokesman Ami Ben David. Authorities are treating the incident as terrorism.
Magen David Adom said its emergency responders evacuated a man and a women in their 50s and woman in her 30s with gunshot wounds to the lower body. Another man in his 40s was evacuated in easy condition with a stab wounds to the neck and ear. The injured were taken to the Rabin medical center for treatment. Two others were injured in unclear circumstances and evacuated in easy condition.
Leon Itkin, who was in the sewing shop when the assailant entered said the man tried to shoot people in the room but was stopped by civilians. “I was in the store when suddenly there’s a terrorist with a weapon. He tried to shoot, but he was stopped,” Itkin reportedly said. Itkin added that the attacker then grabbed a screwdriver and stabbed one of the men who was attempting to control him.
תיעוד דרמטי!
שוטרים עוצרים את המחבל בפתח תקווה – כל העידכונים>> https://t.co/yF2aquJ714 pic.twitter.com/3dRvTURu7f
— חדשות בחדרי חרדים (@behadrei_bhol) February 9, 2017
Video of the aftermath shows the alleged assailant being apprehended by police surrounded by a crowd of people.
United Hatzalah EMT Zev Topper stated that one of the patients treated had been beaten by passersby who mistook him for the assailant. The patient said that he screamed “I am not the terrorist I was chasing the terrorist. If I die, I die protecting the State of Israel.”
Gal Dover, a paramedic with United Hatzalah who responded to the incident said, “As I was treating a woman for gunshot injuries to her legs, the dispatch center informed me and my fellow EMS first responders that there were other injured people the next street over. After I finished treating the woman, I ran over to the other scene where I treated a man for a stab wound and head injury.”
View original The Jerusalem Post publication at:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/At-least-1-hurt-in-Petah-Tikva-shooting-background-unclear-481062