Alert policemen foiled a terrorist stabbing attack Sunday in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The terrorist, an Arab man aged 25, from the Hevron area, had reached the Cotton Gate that leads to the Temple Mount, when officers the Temple Mount police spotted him and decided that he seemed suspicious.

They began to question him about what he was doing there but he managed to get away.

The police team alerted other teams on the radio, and another police group stationed at the Iron Gate spotted the suspect trying to enter the Temple Mount from there. They detained him and alerted Temple Mount Police commander Shlomi Tubul.

The suspect admitted to Tubul that he had decided to carry out a stabbing attack that day and that he had come to the Temple Mount for a last prayer before carrying it out. He also said that he had purchased a knife and had stashed it away near the Damascus Gate.

He led the policemen to the Damascus Gate and pointed to a bag that had been hidden in the bushes, Inside it were a knife and screwdrivers that he intended to use for the stabbing.

Tubul expressed pride in the alertness of police officers who prevented “a murderous stabbing attack.”