A DARWEN councillor born in Jordan has spoken of the distress and anger at discovering her relative has been killed outside the Israeli Embassy in its capital Amman.

Dr Bashar Hamarneh, a cousin of Whitehall ward Liberal Democrat Karimeh Foster, was one of two people shot by an security guard on Sunday night.

She said the orthopaedic surgeon, who was married and has two children and in his late 40s, had gone to help a Jordanian teenager who had been shot during an argument with an Israeli guard.

The carpenter, said to be armed with a screwdriver, had been working in her cousin’s house next door to the embassy, which Dr Hamarneh rented to the Israeli government.

Cllr Foster said, “I am very upset. “He was a well-respected doctor on Jordan and was shot because he came to help the injured boy.

“What makes me even angrier is the fact that the Israeli Prime Minister congratulated the guard for his actions.

“There was not one ounce of sympathy for an innocent life taken needlessly. The family met in Jordan on Monday and is asking the King of Jordan to act. “

The Israeli government has refused to allow the guard to be questioned by police.

Cllr Foster said: “The killing of an unarmed doctor has inflamed tensions in Jordan and local people are calling for the closure of the embassy.

“I agree if the Israeli government cannot respect the lives of Jordanian citizens in their own country they don’t deserve to have an embassy there.”

Israeli government spokesman: “An Israeli security officer at the embassy in Amman was stabbed on Sunday by a Jordanian worker who had entered the embassy compound for routine furniture replacement.

“The security officer, the Jordanian landlord and two Jordanian workers were present. One of the workers attacked the Israeli security official from the rear and began stabbing him with a screwdriver.

“The security official, who was slightly wounded, defended himself. During the incident, the Jordanian worker was killed, but the landlord was injured as well. He later died of his wounds.

“In accordance with the Vienna Convention, the security officer has immunity from investigation and imprisonment. “

The incident came at a time of heightened tension in the region over a Jerusalem holy site.

On Friday, thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman against Israel over the installation of metal detectors outside a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews in East Jerusalem.