Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher after the assault in Jerusalem. (Reuters)

Jerusalem, Dec. 22 (Reuters): Radical worshippers assaulted Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Maher in the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City today and he was rushed to hospital, witnesses, police and security guards said.

Initial reports said Maher, 68, was physically beaten and taken unconscious to hospital but witnesses and police later said he was accosted, jostled and possibly struck several times by a hostile mob shouting “Allah-u- Akbar” (God is Great).

The mob shouted “traitor” and “collaborator” at Maher and threw shoes they had doffed for prayers at his entourage and at Israeli police taking him out of the mosque to safety.

Television footage of the incident showed Maher, pale and struggling for breath, being escorted out of the mosque by police and bodyguards through a screaming crowd. Israeli medics said Maher, who had just completed talks on West Asia peace issues with Israeli leaders, was treated for shortness of breath and was in good condition.

After receiving treatment near the mosque, he was taken to Hadassah hospital for checks, and Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom went to the hospital to see him.

Israeli television said Maher had apparently suffered an asthma attack because he was seen using an inhaler shortly after the incident inside the mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.

“A group of Palestinian extremists started shouting at Maher and calling him a traitor and collaborator and then they were trying to reach him but guards (nearby) prevented them,” a mosque guard who witnessed the incident said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said he was “shocked and furious” over the attack on Maher, whose country signed the Arab world’s first peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

The hostility shown to Maher followed a rebuff by Palestinian militants to high-level Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire between them and Israel. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said the government would investigate the incident in the elevated mosque compound known as al Haram al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews and Christians.