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Jerusalem mayor says bus explosion caused by bomb Jerusalem rocked by suspected bomb explosion on bus
(about 2 hours later)
An explosion on board a bus in Jerusalem has injured at least 16 people, including two seriously. A suspected bomb explosion on a Jerusalem bus has injured 21 people,two of them seriously.
Police said the cause of Monday’s blast was not immediately known, but they were carrying out a thorough forensic investigation. The explosion, which if confirmed as the result of a bomb would be the first in Jerusalem since the end of the second intifada a decade ago, gutted the number 12 Egged bus and set fire to a second passing bus and car. Most of the injuries occurred when the second bus was caught in the blast from the first.
However, the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said the explosion was caused by a bomb. Despite a recent drop in the violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the past six months, Israel – and Jerusalem in particular – had been on an increased alert ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins on Friday.
“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. Police, the Israeli domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and the city’s mayor Nir Barkat said the cause of the blast was a suspected explosive device towards the back of the first bus.
Some emergency responders also said the blast had the hallmarks of a bomb, probably placed at the back of the bus. Jerusalem’s district police commander, Yoram HaLevy, said the explosion was caused by an explosive device placed in the rear part of the bus, which was 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.
Two people were seriously injured when the blast caused two other vehicles to catch fire. “We are still in the initial stages of the investigation. We’re trying to find out where the explosive device came from and who placed it on the bus,” HaLevy said.
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. Avraham Rivkind, a trauma specialist at Hadassah Ein Karem hospital, said some of the injuries were in line with injuries from past terrorist bombings in Jerusalem. “There are penetration wounds. We saw in imaging and we pulled out nails and nuts,” he told the Ynet website.
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. At the scene of the incident on Monday night army bomb disposal experts were combing through the wreckage of the three burned-out vehicles, the first of which had been reduced to a skeleton of charred metal while the second was badly burned with its windows smashed.
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. Israeli media said a man who was seriously injured and not carrying any identification papers was under investigation on suspicion that he was responsible. The Guardian could not confirm that.
“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. Police initially said they were looking at the possibility that a technical malfunction had caused the explosion on the bus, which had been travelling from Arnon HaNatziv to Mount Herzel when the incident occurred on Moshe Barham street.
“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.” But a spokeswoman for Nir Barkat, the Israeli mayor in Jerusalem, said the explosion was a detonation. “It was small, but it was definitely a bomb,” the spokeswoman, Brachie Sprung.
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. A spokesman for the Magen David emergency service said: “When we arrived to the scene of the incident we saw people injured, lying on the ground. They were suffering from injuries including burns and bruises and were given primary health care.”
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. The incident occurred late on Monday afternoon during the city’s rush hour on a main road close to the industrial and shopping district of Talpiyot.
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. Suicide bombings on buses in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel were a feature of the second intifada, which ended more than 10 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 casualties. 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.