AMMAN — Five people, including three tourists, were wounded in a knife attack in Jordan on Wednesday, a security spokesman said, adding that the assailant had been apprehended.

"Around noon, a man attacked tourists, a tour guide and a security officer who tried to stop him in Jerash", a popular attraction 50 km from the capital Amman, a spokesman for the public security directorate said in a statement.

"The wounded were transported to hospital for treatment" and "the assailant was immediately arrested", he added.

He did not specify the nationality of the attacker or of those wounded, nor give details on the severity of their injuries.

It is not the first time tourist sites have been targeted by attacks in Jordan.

In December 2016, at Karak, home to one of the region's biggest Crusader castles, 10 people were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded.

The attack was claimed by Daesh (the so-called IS). Ten people were ultimately sentenced for carrying out the attack.

The Roman ruins at Jerash are one of Jordan's main tourist draws after the ancient desert city of Petra.

Tourism is a mainstay of the Jordanian economy. — AFP