An Israeli man stabbed
a security guard outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv late Tuesday morning,
lightly injuring him in his leg.
The man, a 41-year-old Jew from Bat Yam,
was armed with an axe and a knife according to Israel Police Yarkon sub-district
commander Yoram Ohayon.
"He began to run toward the security guards. They
saw him, took their guns out and told him to get down on the ground," said David
Cohen, 48, who witnessed the incident while jogging along Tel Aviv's
Mediterranean promenade.
"He continued running and then they fired in the
air and ordered him again to lie down. He continued to advance,” Cohen
added.
Ohayon explained the security guards shot a few warning shots at
the individual but it was a police officer who managed to control and arrest him
in the end.
Isabel Alort, a tourist from Switzerland was sitting at the
cafe next door for breakfast when she loud heard screams and gunshots: “The guy
was screaming, so were the guards and then suddenly. It took about ten minutes
for the police to arrive and put him down on the ground.”
“I wanted to
see what was going on, but I was scared I hid against the wall,” said Alort, who
is on a ten-day vacation in Israel, “It was the first time I ever heard
gunshots, it was so scary I started praying.”
Yoram Ohayon stated the
incident does not seem to be related to the current security situation in the
country: “In this case, at the beginning of the investigation, We won’t speak
about a terror attack, we’re talking about a criminal attack.”
“We see no
connection between the security situation and what happened today at the
American embassy,” he added, “I hope we find out more during the
investigation.”
The US embassy said in a statement that there was an
incident but that "the situation is under control."
Reuters contributed to this
report