A US tourist opened fire in an Israeli hotel in the Red Sea resort city of Eilat on Friday, killing at least one person, in an attack whose motives were not immediately clear, a police spokesman said.

Police have surrounded the hotel and have called in "a large number of units to deal with the situation", spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Israel Radio said the gunman had grabbed the weapon from a security guard, shot a hotel employee, then fled and barricaded himself inside his room. – Reuters