The mayor of Jerusalem and his bodyguard stopped a knife assault on a man in the city Sunday, wrestling the attacker to the ground and holding him until police arrived, officials said.
Nir Barkat, 55, was riding in his car when he saw the attack unfold in front of him, said his spokesman, Brachi Sprung. Security camera footage showed the attacker swinging at a crowd of pedestrians with a knife near city hall when he struck an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, Reuters reported. The video then shows Barkat and his bodyguard holding the attacker down at a pedestrian crossing.
"My bodyguard took out his weapon and when he aimed at the terrorist, the terrorist dropped his knife and we immediately tackled him on the ground to make sure that he cannot continue with the terror attack and then went out to see the wounded person that, thank God, was relatively slightly wounded we gave him first aid," Barkat told reporters shortly afterward.
The wounded man, who is in his 20s, was taken to a hospital for medical treatment, the Israel Police Foreign Press spokesman said on Twitter. He wasn’t seriously wounded, medical officials said.
The alleged attacker, an 18-year-old Palestinian, was arrested. He didn’t have authorization to live in Israel.
Elected Jerusalem’s mayor in 2008, Barkat formerly served as an officer in the paratrooper’s brigade.
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— Paul Goldman, Miranda Leitsinger and Reuters contributed to this report.
