In the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem for months, a 28 year-old truck driver targeted Israeli officer cadets getting off a bus tour on a popular city promenade.
It left a scene of chaos, with the dead and wounded strewn across the street.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the truck was deliberately driven off-course and into the soldiers as they crossed the road.
"At the moment forensics are working at the scene. We are looking to see the IDs, both of the soldiers that were killed as well as at the same time examining the identification of the terrorist. What we have confirmed is it was a terrorist attack from a lone terrorist from one of the nearby neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and it's one of the worst terrorist attacks that have taken place in Jerusalem over the last couple of months."
After the truck ploughed through the group, witnesses said the driver reversed over them before being shot dead.
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the scene and compared the incident to the recent string of terrorist attacks in France, Germany and Turkey.
"We are here after a brutal and tragic terror attack in which four Israeli soldiers were murdered - three female soldiers and a male soldier. We know the identity of the attacker, according to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State. We blockaded the neighbourhood he came from and we are taking other actions which I will not detail here."
Tour guide operator Eytan Rund spoke of how he fired on the attacker.
"The truck sent me flying, I was lucky, just a couple of bruises. My left side, the right corner of the truck, hit me and sent me flying, a couple of flips on the grass. I pulled out the gun I fired one shot at the wheels and I realised this will not do and while he was driving, I ran to overtake him from his left side, I stood in front of him and started shooting my entire magazine until it was over."
The driver was later identified as father-of-four Fadi Ahmad Hamdan Qunbor.
His uncle, Abu Ali, says Israeli forces raided homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood after the attack.
"They arrested women and men and they destroyed the houses. We filmed and documented everything. They attacked everyone, even the people who were in the street. Also, they closed the entrance for the village."
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Islamist group Hamas, has described the attack as a "brave defence" of Palestinian rights.
"We consider it to be a natural reaction to the Israeli occupation's violations and crimes against our people, our land and our holy places."
Israel has hit out at the Palestinian leadership, accusing it of inciting young men to commit such acts of violence.
