JERUSALEM, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed in a shooting attack at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli authorities said.

Police said two assailants opened fire at a bus stop and then at a bus before security personnel and a civilian returned fire, killing the attackers at the scene.

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said the dead included a woman and five men, while six others were seriously injured. Hospitals in Jerusalem, where the injured were taken, reported receiving 38 patients, most of them with light to moderate wounds.

The attack took place at Ramot Junction, near Ramot, a settlement neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Citing Israeli security officials, Israel's state-owned Kan TV news said they were Palestinians from the villages of Qatanna and Al-Qubeiba in the Ramallah Governorate in the occupied West Bank, armed with a handgun and an improvised submachine gun.

Footage from the scene showed two buses with shattered windows and bullet holes. Dozens were seen fleeing from a crowded bus stop during the morning rush hour. First responders described a chaotic scene covered in broken glass.

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Israeli troops have been deployed to the area and are "searching for suspects in cooperation with the Israel Police," the military said in a statement, adding that forces were surrounding several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he was holding "a situation assessment with senior security officials following the attack in Jerusalem."

Later, Netanyahu visited the scene of the attack and said that Israel is "in a mighty war on terror on several fronts," and that the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military had thwarted hundreds of attacks this year, "but unfortunately not this morning."

The attack came amid nearly a two-year Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has coincided with an escalation of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as well as a rise in Palestinian attacks against Israelis. ■