A British tourist has been killed and six others wounded after a man opened fire on them in Amman. Witnesses said the man fired at least 12 bullets before he finished his ammunition and was overpowered by police and arrested. The attack took place on afternoon Monday in a crowded part of central Amman close to a Roman amphitheatre - an area popular with tourists. Two British people, a Dutch citizen, a New Zealander, a Dutchman and their Jordanian tour guide were wounded during the shooting, said Nasser Joudeh, the government spokesman. Jordanian officials said they were investigating whether the man acted on his own or belonged to a radical Islamist group.The shooting is the first attack in the pro-western kingdom since scores of people died in triple suicide bombings against luxury hotels claimed by al Qaeda last November. During a visit to the hospital where the wounded were being treated, the Jordanian prime minister, Marouf al-Bakheet, said: "We will ascertain in the next period whether this was a sole act or whether this individual is a member of a terrorist cell."
The Jordanian interior minister, Eid al-Fayez, described the incident as a "cowardly terrorist attack, which we regret took place on Jordanian soil."
Muhammad Jawad Ali, an Iraqi man who witnessed the shooting, said: "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. "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."
The gunman has been identified as Nabil Ahmad, a Jordanian in his late thirties and a resident of the industrial town of Zarqa, on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Jordanian officials said. He is believed to have acted on his own.
