A teenaged Israeli gunman has been lynched after killing four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town

BBC News:

The man, said to be wearing an army uniform and a Jewish skull cap, opened fire on pasengers as the bus was passing through Shfaram near Haifa.

Several people were injured, some seriously. A furious mob killed the gunman as police were leading him away.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the incident a reprehensible act by a "bloodthirsty terrorist".

"This terror incident is a deliberate attempt to harm the relations between the citizens of Israel," he said through his office.

"Terror between civilians is the most dangerous thing for the future of Israel and its democratic stability."

Israel is preparing to pull its settlers out of the occupied Gaza Strip and they have been fears of attacks by Jewish settlers opposed to the pullout, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson.

Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab member of parliament, said at the scene that the dead were Arabs and all residents of Shfaram.

Eyewitnesses quoted on Israeli television described the gunman as bearded and wearing a Jewish skull cap and military uniform.

He has been named as Eden Tsuberi, 19, from the Jewish settlement of Tapuah in the West Bank.

Media reports said he was absent without leave from his army unit, and was a member of the extremist Kach party.

"It seems like Jewish terror against Arabs," police spokesman Avi Zelba told Reuters news agency.

Local people in Shfaram accused the police of double standards.

"If this attack had occurred in a Jewish neighbourhood and the attacker was Arab, he would have been killed immediately," one unnamed witness was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post.

"The police came and they didn't do anything... They were holding him alive in the bus."

Israeli lynched after 'Jewish terror' shooting

Arab mob lynches Israeli who killed 4