Gunman opens fire in Tel Aviv bar

Two people were killed and at least seven wounded Friday when a gunman opened fire on a pub and nearby cafe in central Tel Aviv, but the motive was not immediately clear.

The shooting came amid a recent wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis and days after the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group threatened the Jewish state with violence.

Injured ...A wounded Israeli man is evacuated on a stretcher by emergency medical staff from the scene of an attack by an unidentified gunman, who opened fire at a pub in Tel Aviv. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

However, police stressed they were investigating in “all directions.” CCTV footage from a nearby grocery store shows a bespectacled young man with a backpack calmly pretending to shop before going to the exit, placing the backpack atop a trolley, removing what looks like a submachine gun and opening fire in the street.

A police spokeswoman refused to confirm or deny reports that a copy of the Koran was found in the assailant’s backpack.

Medics said they took nine people to hospitals in Tel Aviv, with police saying two of them had died.

Clue hunting ... Israeli forensics inspect the site of an attack by an unidentified gunman, who opened fire at a pub in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

One of the fatalities was identified by his father as Alon Bakal, a law and business student was a manager at Simta, the pub targeted.

An AFP reporter said patrons there and at a nearby cafe had been shot at, and that the sidewalk was strewn with chairs and broken glass as police forensic officers examined the scene.

Witnesses said people had braved the chilly weather to sit outside on terraces at both venues, located on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare of pubs, cafes and shops.

“Police units searching Tel Aviv area for suspect who carried out shooting. All injured taken to Tel Aviv hospitals,” spokesman Micky Rosenfeld wrote on Twitter.

Hundreds of police were scouring the area, entering buildings in the vicinity and northward, where the assailant was believed to have fled, and police helicopters buzzed overhead.

Shock ... Israelis look at the scene of a shooting attack in Tel Aviv, Israel. Picture: APSource:AP

Later, police said a man was pronounced dead after being found in north Tel Aviv, apparently as a result of gunfire. He was identified as an Arab resident of Ramle, south of Tel Aviv, but there was nothing to immediately link him to the earlier incident.

-’I would have been dead’-

Haim Pinto was closing his jewelry store near the pub when the shooting began. “People started running in my direction, yelling ‘terrorist, terrorist’. I saw the commotion and went right back into my store, another girl came in and we hid in the bathroom till the shooting ended,” he told AFP.

Pinto said the pub had opened “just a few months ago”.

He said that, judging by the sound of the shots, the assailant had fired single rounds rather than in automatic bursts.

Upset ... An Israeli woman reacts at the scene of a shooting attack in Tel Aviv, Israel. Picture: APSource:AP

Osnat David, who owns a hair salon near the pub, said she was outside smoking a cigarette just two minutes before the attack began.

“If I were there when it happened I would have been dead,” she said, recounting how she hid in her salon’s storage room with a few customers, clutching a pair of scissors and waiting for the shooting to end.

French tourist Alexandre Lambez was at a cafe across the street from the one targeted after the pub.

“I heard gunshots and turned around; I saw people rushing to the back of the cafe. I heard screaming and saw a man shooting. He was brown haired wearing a grey sweater and fled the scene,” he told AFP.

Looking for gunman ... Members of the Israeli security forces search the area following an attack by an unidentified gunman, who opened fire at a pub in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

“I immediately thought of the attacks in Paris,” he said, referring to jihadist attacks in November that killed 130 people at bars, a concert hall and the Stade de France stadium.

Twenty Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in a wave of Palestinian attacks since October 1 including stabbings, car-rammings and gun fire targeting security forces and civilians.

In a recording released Saturday, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is heard pledging to attack Israel, saying his group has “not forgotten Palestine for a single moment”.

“And soon, soon with God’s permission, you will hear the footsteps of the mujahedeen... We are getting closer to you day by day,” he said.

Manhunt ... Members of the Israeli security forces search the area following an attack by an unidentified gunman. Picture: AFPSource:AFP