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Four tourists among 6 hurt in Jordan stabbing

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Amman: Six people, including four tourists, were wounded in a knife attack in Jordan on Wednesday, a security spokesman said, adding that the assailant had been apprehended.


Four tourists — three Mexicans and a Swiss woman — were wounded in the knife attack, along with a Jordanian tour guide and a security officer, public security directorate spokesman Amer Sartawi said.


“Around noon, a man attacked tourists, a tour guide and a security officer who tried to stop him in Jerash” a popular attraction 50 kilometres from the capital Amman, Sartawi said.


“The wounded were transported to hospital for treatment” and “the assailant was immediately arrested”, he added. He did not specify the nationality of the attacker or give details on the severity of the wounds. The attacker’s motivation is so far unknown, he added.


It is not the first time tourist sites have been targeted by attacks in Jordan. In December 2016, in Karak, home to one of the region’s biggest castles, 10 people were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded.


The attack was claimed by the IS and 10 people were eventually convicted of carrying it out.


Four “terrorist” incidents struck the country the same year, including a suicide attack in June claimed by IS that killed seven Jordanian border guards near the border with Syria.


Tourism is a mainstay of the Jordanian economy, with the kingdom working to pull the sector out of a crisis caused by regional unrest.


The country boasts 21,000 archaeological and historical sites that span millennia, according to the tourism board. They include the Roman ruins of Jerash, the ancient city of Petra, the Dead Sea and Wadi al Kharrar, or Bethany Beyond the Jordan, where some believe Jesus was baptised. — AFP


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