JERUSALEM — Two Arab-Israeli teenage girls stabbed a security guard near the Ramle central bus station.

The girls, 13, reportedly pulled kitchen knives out of a school backpack and began stabbing the guard, 27, when he asked them for identification. He was taken to a nearby hospital with stab wounds in his hand and leg.

A soldier and a civilian reportedly subdued the teens and held them until police arrived to arrest them and take them for questioning.

Ramle is a mixed Jewish-Arab city in central Israel. The teens reportedly are from Jawarish, an Arab-Israeli village located about five kilometres southwest of Ramle.

Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavi called the attack “uncharacteristic of the Arab sector in Ramle,” Ynet reported. He added: “Ramle is a multi-cultural city, in which people live in coexistence and in good neighbourly relations, Jews alongside Arabs.”

Initial news reports called the attack nationally motivated.