An attack occurred on a bus in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police said, with medics reporting an explosion and at least 15 people wounded.
Police only said there was “an attack” without providing further details. Rescue service Magen David Adom reported the explosion and at least 15 wounded, including two seriously. Police said it may have been a militant attack or the result of a fire from other causes. Television images showed smoke billowing from two burned-out buses, one of which apparently set fire to the other, on Derech Hebron, an area in southwest Jerusalem close to the boundary with the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Smoke billowed over the horizon.
It was not immediately clear if the casualties included fatalities. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulances service said it had taken 10 wounded people to hospitals and that others remained at the site of the blast.
Attacks on Israeli buses by suicide bombers were a hallmark of the Palestinian uprising in 2000-2005 but have been rare since.
An Israeli police spokeswoman initially said there were indications that Monday’s incident was a militant attack, but in an updated statement said it may have begun when an empty bus caught fire, ignited another bus that had passengers aboard.
The bus appeared to have been empty at the time, the police said, with the wounded apparently on another bus situated next to it.
“A bus travelling from southern Jerusalem reached Moshe Baram street,” a police statement said. “There was apparently an explosion and the bus started burning. Another bus nearby and a private car were also hit.”
An AFP journalist at the scene said one bus was completely burnt out while another was partially burned, with a large contingent of firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze. The incident comes with tensions high following a wave of violence that began in October which has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. A bus bombing would mark a significant escalation in the violence.