The stabbing victim, identified as 21-year-old Shmuel Mat, was killed near the Jaffa Gate.

The murder was documented on video cameras the police have positioned around the Old City.

Mat's companion, a fellow student from the United States, was moderately wounded. The two victims had been studying at an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in the Old City.

Members of the British student's family refused to allow officials to perform an autopsy on his body, Israel Radio reported early Thursday.

In response to the families wishes, police said they would make do with an external examination of the body.

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators caused damage to an ambulance Wednesday night at the hospital, protesting their assumption that an autopsy would be performed on Mat's body.

Police at the scene dispersed the rioters by force. Three police officers were injured and four people were arrested on suspicion of causing disturbance.

After the attack late on Wednesday, the American managed to reach a police station some 200 meters away and led police to his critically wounded friend at the site of the stabbing.

The victim was taken to Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Kerem, where he died of his wounds; his companion was hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The police said they were pursuing the attacker who had fled the scene. Yoram Halevy, commander of the Old City's police station, said a Palestinian carried out the stabbings. Police said the attack was nationally motivated.