By Stan Goodenough
Mar 06, 2008
Eight people were killed and 35 were wounded Thursday evening when a Palestinian Arab from Jerusalem opened fire in a seminary (yeshiva) in the capital.
Ambulances from around the capital were heard at about 8:45 PM racing to the Mercaz Harav Seminary in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood not far from the Knesset.
Police and soldiers also descended on the scene, from where reports came that a terrorist had been shot dead. Eyewtinesses said the killer was wearing an explosive ("suicide") belt but did not detonate it.
According to reports from the scene, an Arab wielding an AK 47 and a pistol gunmen burst into the seminary library where about 80 people were studying, and opened fire.
Terrified students fled the scene, some seeking cover in bomb shelters as the shooting continued.
One student told Sky News he had seen an armed man crouched on a roof near the seminary. The next minute a man walked into the building and began "spraying" the students with automatic fire.
The student said he shot the terrorist twice in the head at point blank range.
It was the first terrorist attack in Jerusalem in over a year.