JERUSALEM - Three Mexican and Swiss tourists and four Jordanians were stabbed by a man in the city of Jerash, a major tourist destination near Roman ruins, the health minister said.
The minister, Saad Fayez Jaber, told Reuters that four of the wounded had moderate to serious wounds, while the rest were minor.
Later, Jaber told the official Petra news agency that the condition of the seriously injured was now stable and at least four would be discharged from hospital on Thursday.
The police identified the suspect as Mohammed Abu Tuima, 22, and said he lived in a makeshift house on the outskirts of the city near a poor Palestinian refugee camp, where many young people are unemployed in the area.
The suspect's father, Mahmoud, 56, told Reuters Television he was about to have a heart attack. He said his son was a loser and his mind distorted, noting that he was even afraid of slaughtering a "chick" so he was shocked to do so.
Footage posted on social media showed a woman lying on the ground bleeding, another in extreme panic and her shirt stained with blood.
Earlier, sources said three of the victims were Spanish. Footage of the incident, broadcast by Jordanian media, showed Spanish-speaking victims with apparently Latin American accents.
The crunches are famous for their Roman ruins.
Jordan has seen an increase in the number of European tourists in the past two years and is considered by the tour operators as one of the safest tourist destinations in the Middle East. Foreign tourists are rarely attacked in the kingdom.