Security official in Jordanian capital says at least two gunmen open fire at group of foreign tourists in downtown area. One British national killed, another five foreigners injured

A lone gunman, chanting Islam's rallying cry of God is Greatest, fired at a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday, killing a British man and wounding six, an official and a witness said.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Joudeh denied earlier reports that the attack was carried out by two men, one of them an Iraqi. He said the gunman, a Jordanian, had been arrested and was being questioned.

Joudeh told Reuters the wounded were three Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander and their Jordanian tour guide.Police cordoned off the site of the attack near the Roman amphitheatre in the downtown area of the capital. "I was walking when I saw someone pull out a pistol from his pocket and start shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) and fire repeatedly," Mohammad Jawad Ali, an Iraqi who witnessed the shooting, told Reuters.

"Then I saw one tourist who appeared to be dead and three who were injured. They were in a group of seven. A woman told me they were tourists from New Zealand and England," Ali said.

Reuters
Published: 09.04.06, 13:40