JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man driving a construction vehicle Wednesday went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem, crushing cars, overturning a bus and killing three people.
The attacker left a 300-yard trail of destruction before being stopped by an off-duty Israeli soldier, who climbed into the vehicle's cab and shot him to death. The attack injured 36 people.
"Terrorists keep finding new ways to attack us," Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski said.
Using the Caterpillar vehicle's front-mounted shovel, the driver repeatedly rammed a bus full of panicked passengers until it flipped over.
One woman was killed instantly when the shovel pierced the windshield of her Toyota.
Radio reporter Yitzhak Noy witnessed part of the attack and said he briefly made eye contact with the driver. He was "a young, handsome man. He looked cold and focused," Noy said.
Police later identified the assailant as Hussam Duwayaat, a 30-year-old father of two from Sour Baher, an Arab village on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem.
Security forces quickly descended on the family home and questioned several of his relatives but made no arrests.
Duwayaat normally drove the front loader as part of a project to install a commuter rail system in Jerusalem.
"He didn't turn up for work today," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
But just before noon, Duwayaat apparently went to the construction site and commandeered the vehicle. Rosenfeld speculated that his ultimate target was a crowded open-air market a few hundred yards from where the Palestinian was killed.
The attack took place on Jaffa Road, one of downtown Jerusalem's main east-west corridors. The light-rail construction has closed several lanes, which made it difficult for cars to escape the rampage and later hindered ambulances and rescue vehicles.
Attack survivor Miki Aronson was turning off Jaffa Road into a parking lot and thought the oncoming construction vehicle was signaling to let her pass.
"But then he just came at me. He kept coming at me, crushing over the car," Aronson told Israeli radio. "He crushed it like a box. I have no idea how I am alive now."
Rosenfeld said Duwayaat appeared to have acted alone, although several obscure Palestinian militant groups issued conflicting claims of responsibility.
The attack was the first in Jerusalem since early March, when a lone Palestinian gunman from East Jerusalem killed eight young religious students inside a yeshiva.
