A lone gunman opened fire on a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday, killing a British man and wounding six other people, officials and witnesses said.
Jordanian officials said they were investigating if the gunman who was arrested shortly after the incident acted on his own or belonged to a radical group. "We will ascertain in the next period whether this was a sole act or whether this individual is a member of a terrorist cell," Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakheet told reporters after a visit to the hospital where the wounded were being treated.
The shooting spree is the first bloody incident to hit the pro-Western kingdom since triple suicide bombings against luxury hotels claimed by al Qaeda last November, which killed scores.
Interior Minister Eid al-Fayez identified the gunman 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, saying initial leads suggested he acted on his own. Anti-Western sentiment has hardened in the kingdom since Israel's military offensives against Gaza and Lebanon.
Government spokesman Nasser Joudeh told Reuters the wounded were two Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander, an Australian and their Jordanian tour guide.
Police cordoned off the site of the attack near the Roman amphitheatre in the downtown area of the capital where thousands of Jordanians go for work and entertainment. Several witnesses said they saw a young man shooting at a group of Western tourists walking near the popular site.
"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."
Witnesses said the gunman shot at least 12 bullets before he finished his ammunition and was chased in the crowded downtown area before he was arrested.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier Fayez told reporters that the incident was an act designed to undermine the security of the kingdom. "There is no doubt that this is a terrorist act that targets the security of Jordan because it fights terror. This will not dissuade us from continuing the battle against terror," he said.
A spokesperson for the British embassy in Jordan confirmed one British national had been killed and two others injured. The Foreign Office did not change its travel advisory to Jordan beyond past advice to travellers to take personal security precautions in view of "a high threat from terrorism in Jordan."