Jerusalem attack witness: Bulldozer lifted car like a toy

Last update - 14:33 02/07/2008
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/998299.html

An eyewitness to the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday said that the bulldozer which plowed into a packed commuter bus also picked up a nearby car "like a toy."

At least two people were killed and dozens more were wounded in the attack on Jaffa Street, which took place a little after noon.

At the scene of the attack, a half-dozen cars were flattened and a third was overturned by an enormous Caterpillar tractor. A bus also was overturned, and another bus was heavily damaged.

"I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old yeshiva student.

"I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy," said Yosef Spielman. "All the people were running. They had no chance."

Dozens of people were seen fleeing from the scene of the attack, as the wounded lay on the ground amid piles of broken glass and blood stains.

A woman sprinkled water over a baby's bloodied face, a rescue worker stroked the hair of a dazed elderly pedestrian and a loved one raised the bleeding leg of a woman sitting outside the overturned bus.

Esther Valencia, a 52-year-old pedestrian said she barely escaped the carnage.

"He almost hit me. Someone pushed me out of the way at the last moment. It was a miracle that I got out of there."

Sixteen-year-old Eyal Lang Ben-Hur, was in a bus when the driver yelled
out, "Get out of the vehicle! Everyone out! People fled in a panic," he said, "and the bus was hit an instant later."

Chen Shimon, a 19-year-old solider, said the whole scene was a nightmare.

"I just got off the bus and I saw the tractor driving and knocking everything down in his path," she said. "Everything he saw he rammed. He had a gun and started shooting at a police officer."