Palestinian gunman kills 8 in Jerusalem Jewish school

By Alastair Macdonald

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding about 10 in the most lethal attack in Israel in two years, emergency services said.

"It was a slaughterhouse," said Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka emergency service after surveying the scene at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the most prominent Jewish educational centers in the holy city.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said a lone gunman carried out the attack and was killed by an off-duty Israeli army officer who lives nearby and ran to the school after hearing gunfire. Police had said earlier there were two gunmen.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but it was greeted with celebrations in the Gaza Strip, where a recent Israeli offensive killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of whom were identified as civilians.

The United Nations, Washington, France and Germany condemned the attack in the strongest terms, and diplomats said the U.N. Security Council would discuss the attack at an extraordinary session at 2400 GMT (7 p.m. EST).

Israeli media reports said the gunman was a resident of Arab East Jerusalem. The school is in the Jewish western part of the city.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said "terrorists are trying to destroy the chances of peace but we will certainly continue peace talks" with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian leader condemned the Jerusalem attack.

Witnesses said the gunman entered the crowded seminary and fired an automatic weapon at students in its library. Franco said the attacker killed eight people.

Police said it appeared most of the dead were in their 20's.

"He hid the weapon in a cardboard box," Franco said.

Emergency worker Yerach Tucker said bloodied students ran out of the seminary. "I went into the library and there were youngsters lying there, dead with bibles -- with holy books in their hands," Tucker told reporters.

It was the most lethal attack in Jerusalem since 2004 and caused the highest Israeli death toll since April 17, 2006, when 11 people were killed in a suicide bombing during the Passover holiday in Tel Aviv.

UN, U.S., EUROPEAN CONDEMNATION

President George W. Bush condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms" and said he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to offer condolences.

"I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack," he said in a statement.