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Breaking News
At Least 10 Wounded in Shooting in Central Jerusalem
Aired January 22, 2002 - 09:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We are back with more breaking news out of Jerusalem. We want to show you some live pictures of what's transpiring now. CNN now confirming that two gunmen were responsible for firing shots at pedestrians in downtown Jerusalem. They have both since been killed by police. Let's go to Mike Hanna at our bureau in Jerusalem to get a better idea of what triggered this.
Mike, is it any clearer what started this shooting rampage?
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we've just had a statement from the police chief in Jerusalem, who says that, in fact, one person was involved in the shooting, one person opened fire, says the police chief on a crowd of pedestrians in the middle of Jerusalem. A number of people have been injured at this stage. Ambulance workers tell us they have taken more than 11 people to hospital.
No confirmation of any fatalities apart from the person who allegedly carried out the attacks. The police chief says that the police themselves were very quickly on the scene, and managed to stop the gunmen within a couple of seconds of him opening fire. The police chief says that the gunmen did not have a chance to change the magazine on his automatic rifle. He was shot dead by police on the scene.
So at this stage, Paula, the gunshots having erupted in the middle of Jerusalem. The police chief now saying that the shots were fired by one gunman, as yet unidentified. More than 10 people have been wounded, according to ambulance workers. No fatalities other than the gunmen have been reported yet -- Paula.
ZAHN: We can see people running for cover. We could in the earlier shots. And there were also reports that some Israeli citizens pulled guns, didn't end up firing them. Give us as much information as you can that the police department now has confirmed.
HANNA: Well, the police, as I said, say that it was one gunman who opened fire on the pedestrians, that the gunman himself was shot by police officers.
Now the whole area has been under a heightened state of alert for a period of time now. The fact that some were carrying weapons in the area is not unusual. Many Israelis, particularly those carrying out their military service, are armed all the time. There have been warnings from security officials of potential terror attacks against Israeli civilian targets.
Only last Thursday, a gunman burst into bat mitzvah, a coming-of- age party, in the coastal city of Cadera (ph), opening fire there, killing six Israelis, so the possibility of a terror gun attack in the middle of a city has been very much on the minds of Israelis. And in the course of events today, where four Hamas members killed by Israeli forces earlier in the day, Hamas subsequently pledging revenge, and saying that it will wage open war against Israel, then the possibility of such attacks increasing, although I must stress at this stage, Paula, no group yet claimed responsible for the gun attack in Jerusalem.
Just to confirm the figures that we have heard from ambulance workers, 11 people, say ambulance workers, have been taken to the hospital wounded. Some of them are reported to be in a serious condition. No fatalities among the bystanders yet reported. However, the one person dead, according to the Jerusalem police chief was the man who carried out the gun attack who opened fire on a group of people at the height of rush hour in Jerusalem -- Paula.
ZAHN: Mike, very quickly, though, would it be unreasonable, given the statement that Hamas sent out to various news agencies that in light of the fact that these four Hamas leaders were killed in the raid on explosives lab. Is it unreasonable to link these two together as potential retaliation here?
HANNA: Well, very much so. That would be the obvious linkage between the killing of Hamas members and the shooting of the course of day, particularly when Hamas had pledged revenge. So it is a reasonable assumption, but as I said, no formal claims of responsibility yet.
ZAHN: All right, Mike Hanna, thanks so much for bringing us up to date on that. Lots of conflicting information, as you might imagine, coming into us here at CNN. Thanks for setting the record straight.
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