JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian labourer driving a construction vehicle rammed into packed buses, tossed cars into the air and rolled over pedestrians in a deadly rampage Wednesday that killed three people and wounded dozens in Jerusalem.
The attacker's unusual weapon -- a yellow Caterpillar front-end loader transformed into a deadly assault vehicle -- threatened both Israelis' sense of security and Palestinians' fragile status in the city.
In image taken from BBC video, an Israeli man stands on a bulldozer after shooting dead a Palestinian attacker in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Three other people were killed and dozens were injured.
Hundreds of panicked people were sent running for cover before the attacker was shot dead by security forces. Three Palestinian militant groups claimed responsibility for the onslaught, the first major attack in Jerusalem in four months.
However, Israeli police said the assailant, a 30-year-old Palestinian from Arab east Jerusalem, apparently acted alone. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was working on a railway project in Jerusalem.
The attack was a departure from militants' previous methods, which have consisted mostly of suicide bombings and shooting sprees.
"To our regret, the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," said Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, whose daughter was on a bus rammed by the attacker. She was not injured.
Israel called the attack a "senseless act" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to negotiate a peace accord with Israel, condemned it. In Washington, the White House said President George W. Bush called the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to express his sorrow over the incident.
The rampage turned a bustling commercial district into a scene of panic and confusion. Maria Stashevsky, a 19-year-old passenger on one of the rammed buses, said she didn't know what was going on until the collision.
"I saw people running our way and then the vehicle appeared and it hit us, turning us over," she said from her hospital bed where she was being treated for injuries to her head, legs and back. "People started landing on me and we had to break through the windows to escape. There was blood everywhere. It's a miracle I got out of there."
Three people were killed and 45 were injured, including two babies.
The mother of one of the babies hurled the child out of the car window to save her as the attacker bore down on their vehicle, and the mother was also injured. The mother of the other baby, Batsheva Unterman, 33, was killed in the assault. Social workers appeared on TV frantically trying to locate the child's father. A second dead woman was identified as Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, a dual Austrian-Israeli citizen who had lived in Israel for several years, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said. The third victim was a man.
Friends identified the attacker as Hussam Dwayat, a devout Muslim and father of two who they said had no known ties to militant groups.
-- The Associated Press
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