Palestinian pulls knife on bus, cuts off Haredi man’s sidelock

A Palestinian man pulled a knife on a public bus outside Jerusalem Sunday night, threatening passengers before hopping off the bus and fleeing.

Terrified passengers scrambled for cover as the man ran down the length of a bus trying to stab fellow travelers.

There were no injuries in the incident, but one ultra-Orthodox man said the attacker sliced off one of his sidelocks.

The attack happened on a Kavim 128 bus, which travels between Beit Shemesh and the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Betar Illit, just inside the West Bank.

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Police said they were looking into events before and after the attack. A police spokesman said they were treating the incident as a deliberate attack on the passengers and that the assailant apparently decided to escape after failing to hurt anyone in his initial rush.

The Palestinian man, in his mid-20s, boarded the bus in Beit Shemesh but when it drew close to the area of Zur Hadassah he pulled the knife and rushed at the other passengers who scattered out of the way. As the bus came to a halt passengers fled from the vehicle, as did the attacker.

Video from a security camera inside the bus aired by Channel 2 News shows pandemonium as passengers try to escape the assailant.

Police and security forces continued searching for the man on Monday morning but no arrests had been made.