In Israel, 16-yr-old student killed as two explosions rock Jerusalem

A 16-year-old student, Aryeh Shechopek was killed and more than a dozen others injured as two explosions hit shook Jerusalem early Wednesday.

An Israeli police spokesperson described the explosions as a “combined terror attack.”

CNN reports the first explosion happened at a bus station near the entrance to Jerusalem at 7:06 am where nothing less than 11 people were injured. It was the first explosion that killed Shechopek.

The police went further that the second explosion occurred nearly 30 minutes later at the city’s Ramot junction, at 7:30 am where three people were evacuated with minor injuries.

According to reports, initial investigations showed that explosive devices were positioned at both blast sites and a search is underway for suspects, the police spokesperson said.

Shechopek’s family said he was a student at a yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, and lived in the Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem.

Two paramedics from Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross affiliate, said when they arrived at the bus station they found two seriously injured people lying on the ground.

“We were at the MDA station by the entrance to the city when we heard a large explosion,” they said. “We immediately headed to the scene in large numbers, including ambulances, MICUs (mobile intensive care units) and medicycles.”

“Two seriously wounded were lying nearby, a 16-year-old in the bus stop and a 45-year-old on the sidewalk.”

The United States Embassy in Jerusalem has reacted to the attacks saying it was condemned in “the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attacks on public locations.”

“Terrorism is a dead-end that accomplishes absolutely nothing,” the Embassy wrote on Twitter.