Four killed in axe attack during prayer at Jerusalem synagogue

Four people were killed at a synagogue in Jerusalem this morning after two men armed with axes, knives and a pistol attacked worshippers as they prayed.

Both attackers, believed to be Palestinians from east Jerusalem, were killed in a shootout with police.

Six other Israelis, including two police officers, were also wounded in what The Times describes as "one of the city's worst attacks in years".

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Witnesses said the onslaught began shortly before 7am as worshippers attended morning prayers in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighbourhood on the western outskirts of the city.

One man who was praying at the synagogue at the time of the attack told Israeli Channel 2 TV: "I tried to escape. The man with the knife approached me. There was a chair and table between us... my prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped."

A police spokeswoman described the attackers as "terrorists" and said they had been "neutralised".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to respond "with a heavy hand to the brutal murder", while Hamas appeared to welcome the attack.

In a statement, the Islamist Hamas movement said it was "a response to the murder of the martyr Yusuf Ramun", referring to a bus driver from east Jerusalem found hanged inside his vehicle late on Sunday. Police have described his death as suicide.

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has surged over the past few weeks, with a string of deadly attacks and clashes over a disputed holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.

The Guardian's Israel correspondent Peter Beaumont says there was already a "tremendous" amount of security in Jerusalem, with observation balloons flying overhead and plain clothes squads going into crowds.

"There has already been a huge increase in the police presence," he says, "you can imagine that will be even more now."

The latest violence comes after the summer war in Gaza, in which more than 2,100 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis were killed.