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21 injured in bus bombing in Israel

18 April 2016 23:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Up to 21 people were injured in a bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem on Monday, local media said, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

Citing police reports, The Times of Israel newspaper described one casualty as “critically” wounded in the blast as the bus passed the Talpiot neighborhood in southern Jerusalem at around 5.45 p.m. local time (1445GMT).

Police chief Yarom Halevy told media the blast was caused by an explosive device placed on the bus.

Speaking after the explosion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “settle the score” with those responsible.

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21:20

Baku-APA. An explosion tore through a bus in Jerusalem on Monday and set a second bus on fire, wounding 16 people in what an Israeli official said was a bombing, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Israeli media said a man who was seriously injured and not carrying any identification papers was under investigation on suspicion he was responsible.

Suicide bombings on Israeli buses were a hallmark of the Palestinian revolt of 2000-2005 but have been rare since. A bomb left by an Israeli Arab aboard a Tel Aviv bus during the 2012 Gaza war caused injuries but no deaths.

Police initially said they were looking at the possibility that a technical malfunction caused the fire in Derech Hebron, an area in southwest Jerusalem close to the boundary with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

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, told Reuters.