Seven dead in shooting outside east Jerusalem synagogue

At least seven people were killed in a shooting outside a synagogue in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Friday, with the gunman killed at the scene, police and medics said.

"Earlier this evening at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT), a terrorist arrived at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot at a number of people in the area," a police statement said.

"Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, engaged with the terrorist and opened fire at him. The terrorist was neutralised," it added.

A police spokesman told AFP that seven people had been killed.

Police were dismantling a white vehicle at the scene, believed to have belonged to the shooter.

Fadi Dekidek, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency response agency, said "this is a very serious terror attack."

The MDA reported a total of 10 gunshot victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.

"I heard a lot of bullets," Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue, told AFP at the scene.