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Jerusalem bus explosion causes at least 10 casualties Jerusalem mayor says bus explosion caused by bomb
(35 minutes later)
An explosion on board a bus in Jerusalem has injured at least 15 people, two seriously. The cause of the explosion was not known immediately. An explosion on board a bus in Jerusalem has injured at least 16 people, including two seriously.
Television images showed smoke billowing from a bus on Hebron Road, a busy route out of the city in south-west Jerusalem. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, quoting an Israeli police spokesperson, the bus was not carrying any passengers when it exploded, and the casualties were apparently people close to the bus. Police said the cause of Monday’s blast was not immediately known, but they were carrying out a thorough forensic investigation.
Witnesses said the bus blast caused a second bus and another vehicle to catch fire, with a plume of smoke visible across the city. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene. However, the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said the explosion was caused by a bomb.
Mickey Cohen, the head of United Hazolah emergency responders in Jerusalem, told the newspaper from the scene: “When I arrived I saw two buses going up in flames and about 10 causalities. Among them one who was mortally wounded and another in serious condition. We provided initial medical treatment to the wounded.” “The mayor has confirmed that this was caused by a bomb. We don’t know any other details and the investigation is ongoing, but it was definitely a bomb,” Barkat’s spokesperson, Brachie Sprung, told the Guardian.
The injured were taken to two of the main hospitals in Jerusalem, the Share Zedek and the Hadassah medical centres. Two were seriously injured and six had moderate wounds. Some emergency responders also said the blast had the hallmarks of a bomb, probably placed at the back of the bus.
The bus was on the outskirts of the city, heading in the direction of settlements in the West Bank, at the time of the blast. Two people were seriously injured when the blast caused two other vehicles to catch fire.
Monday’s blast comes amid a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis, mostly stabbings, and if confirmed as a terror attack will raise fears of a return to the regular suicide attacks on buses that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago. Television images showed smoke billowing from the bus, which was close to a major road junction in south-west Jerusalem and near Israeli settlements just over the Green Line in the West Bank.
This is a breaking news update. More details soon. Witnesses said the blast caused a second bus and another vehicle to catch fire, with a plume of smoke visible across the city. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene.
According to Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld, the bus was not carrying any passengers when it exploded, but people on the second bus were injured.
“What we know up until now is that an explosion took place on a bus - that has been confirmed. There was a second bus adjacent to the first bus, and 16 people were taken to hospital, mostly from the second bus, with two people injured seriously,” said Rosenfeld.
“The main focus for us is to understand the cause of the explosion, whether it was a technical fault or a device. It doesn’t usually happen.”
Forensic teams and bomb squad officers were examining the wreckage, he added. If the result turned out to be a terrorist incident, security arrangements for the Jewish festival of Passover, which begins on Friday, would be reviewed.
Suicide bombings on buses in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel were a feature of the second intifada, or uprising, which ended more than 20 years ago. In recent months there has been a fresh wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis, mostly stabbings and car-rammings.
Speaking from the scene, Mickey Cohen, the head of United Hazolah emergency responders in Jerusalem, told the Israeli news site Haaretz: “When I arrived I saw two buses going up in flames and about 10 causalities. Among them one who was mortally wounded and another in serious condition. We provided initial medical treatment to the wounded.”
The injured were taken to two of the main hospitals in Jerusalem, the Share Zedek and the Hadassah medical centres. Two were seriously injured and six had moderate wounds. Two children were among those with light injuries.