At least eight people have been killed and 35 more wounded in a shootout at a Jewish school in west Jerusalem, Shirin Abu Aqla, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the city, said.

Agencies quoted witnesses as saying that an armed man entered the yeshiva, or religious school, and opened fire on Thursday.

The seminary is located in the Kyriat Moshe neighborhood.

According to witnesses, the armed man entered a dining hall where about 80 people were gathered, and opened fire.

The school is a well-known centre of Jewish studies linked with those leading the Jewish settler movement in the occupied West Bank.

Shmuel Ben Ruby, Jerusalem police spokesman, said: "One or two terrorists infiltrated the Mercaz Harav seminary and opened fire in all directions.

"One terrorist was killed in an exchange of fire, and apparently he had an explosives belt."

PHOTO CAPTION

Jewish religious school students evacuate a fellow student after he was injured in a shooting attack in Jerusalem March 6, 2008.

Al-Jazeera