18-year-old girl killed in apparent hit-and-run by bus in Haifa

An 18-year-old woman was killed in an apparent hit-and-run by a bus in the northern city of Haifa early Friday morning, police and medics said.

Paramedics who arrived on the scene found the Haifa resident unconscious and not breathing, and declared her dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement.

Police said they arrested the bus driver, a 39-year-old resident of the Arab town of Shfaram.

According to a preliminary investigation, the driver fled the scene after hitting the woman while she was walking across the route of the Metronit bus rapid service.

Later on Friday morning, a 13-year-old girl was lightly injured in a separate incident after being hit by a car in the southern city of Kiryat Gat.

MDA said in a statement that paramedics on the scene took the victim to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance in central Israel, March 29, 2012. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Police said they opened an investigation into the incident, and are searching for the driver, who fled the scene.

According to the latest data from the National Road Safety Authority, 325 people have been killed in 298 traffic accidents since the beginning of the year.