A Palestinian man stabbed 13 people on a bus in Tel Aviv early on Wednesday morning, Israeli police have confirmed.

At least four people were seriously hurt, and the rest wounded, when the knife-wielding man boarded the number 40 bus on Menachem Begin road in central Tel Aviv and attacked the driver and passengers.

The 22-year-old from the West Bank town of Tul Karem, who was described by police as a terrorist, quickly fled the scene, but was tracked down and shot by prison service officers.

One officer involved in apprehending the man described his attempted escape: "Suddenly, we saw people running out of the bus and when we saw them shouting for help. We jumped out (of our vehicle) and I and three others started running after the terrorist. At first we fired in the air, then at his legs.

"The terrorist fell, we handcuffed him and turned him over to police.”

Commander Bentzi Sau, Tel Aviv’s police commander, said the attack had taken place with a “serious nationalistic motive”.

This is the first terrorist attack to have taken place in Tel Aviv since November, when IDF soldier Almog Shiloni was stabbed and killed by a Palestinian man at the Haganah train station.