A 19-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus area village of Beita in the northern occupied West Bank was detained late Thursday afternoon at a market in the central Israeli town of Petah Tikva, in connection with a reported shooting and stabbing attack that has left six people injured, according to Israeli police.
Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said in a statement that the teen was caught and disarmed by locals before being detained by Israeli police, at which time he was unharmed with the firearm still in his hand.
Initial reports from al-Samri around 5 p.m said that three people were injured with minor gunshot wounds, including a man in his fifties, a woman in her fifties, and another woman in her thirties.
UPDATE: Four wounded in Petah Tikva terror attack; shooter fled scene but captured by police shortly thereafter https://t.co/hrhm3Djyje pic.twitter.com/WGK8oUhYUe
— Ynetnews (@ynetnews) February 9, 2017
In addition, al-Samri said a man in his forties was taken to the hospital after he was stabbed.
The identities of the four injured people remained unknown.
“Police are still investigating whether the shooting and the stabbing are related,” al-Samri said, adding that “a suspect, seemingly Palestinian, was arrested as police rushed to the scene for investigations.”
According to Israeli police the incidents are being treated as “terrorist attacks.”
A police foreign spokesman confirmed that the alleged Palestinian attacker was detained at the scene, adding that investigations on the attack were continuing and “security measures” have been implemented “in and around public areas.”
(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)
