Eyewitness Shimon Vaknin was among the 15-20 people taking part in the mincha minyan in the Panorama Building in Tel Aviv when the stabbing attack occurred, shortly before 14:00 today.
He explains “I arrived in the building for a meeting. The person I was meeting with told me ‘we made it in time for mincha’ and I too davened.
“There were between 15-20 people. During Shmona Esrei a Jewish man stumbled, full of blood, falling on some of us”.
He was the first victim and then the others B”H realized quickly what was taking place and they tried to get the attacker, albeit without success.
Vaknin adds “I have a weapon and ran out after the terrorist who fled”. It appears he then ran to a lower floor and stabbed others.
Vaknin adds the mispallalim were working on stopping the bleeding from the victim, who was bleeding profusely and a tourniquet was applied in an effort to stop his bleeding.
Ichilov Hospital has since reported R”L a second victim has died of his injuries. A third victim of the attack is in Ichilov, listed in moderate condition.
The area of the first attack was a foyer to a small shul used for daily mincha minyan. One can see in the photo, the blood on the ground outside a small shul as crime scene technicians work the scene in an effort to piece together the order of events and gather evidence.
There is no explanation given at this time for what appears to be a black body bag since police reported the terrorist is alive, not killed. Zaka uses black bags for terrorists and white body bags with a Zaka logo for victims.
