Fourteen Wounded in Bus Attack in Tel Aviv

An elderly Israeli woman receives medical care after she was stabbed by a Palestinian attacker on a civilian bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, 21 January 2015. Photo by EPA/BGNES

An attacker has stabbed fourteen people traveling in a bus in central Tel Aviv, Israel's Embassy in Sofia has confirmed.

Four of the wounded are in a critical condition, three more moderately, and the others have suffered minor injuries, Israeli Ambassdor Shaul Kamisa Raz's spokesperson has told Novinite.

Some English-language Israeli media outlets put the count of wounded people at nine, while others argue they are up to fourteen.

The perpetrator, 23, has been shot by police officers after attempting to flee and has been wounded.

He first stabbed the driver and then targeted other passengers.

Police reports suggest he is from the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld says his actions are being treated as a "terror attack."

Police forensics on the bus in central tel aviv after terrorist attack by Palestinian from Tulkarem pic.twitter.com/9wAV8bDowp

— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) January 21, 2015

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has condemned the Palestinian and Israeli Arab leadership after the attack.

"It doesn't matter to them if it's Judea and Samaria, the Negev, the Galilee, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem - it is all part of the same branch which aims to eliminate the Jewish state," Haaretz quotes him as saying.

But a member of Hamas' political bureau has described the incident as a "heroic act", according to the online version of Haaretz.

The street around the Maariv bridge, where the bus was moving at the time of the attack, has been sealed off.

The Mehahem Begin Road, where the "minority" member (as described by Israeli police) committed the attack during the morning rush hour, is a major throughway in Tel Aviv.

In November, two Palestinians armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed four people at a synagogue in Paris and wounded others, with one of the injured dying in hospital the next day.

The latest developments are already triggering a debate about security in Israel.

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