The Israeli embassy said: “An Israeli employee at the Israeli embassy in Beijing was attacked today (not in the embassy area).

“The employee is being treated in hospital and his condition is stable. The background of the attack is being investigated.”

Video footage circulating on social media, which the Post cannot independently verify, appears to show a man being stabbed several times in the shoulder and chest, and falling to the ground. The video also shows what appears to be blood on the pavement.

Members of the public who arrived at the scene soon after the stabbing said the attacker in the video resembled a man they saw carrying a knife.

In another video clip, witnesses told police officers, who said they were from the Xinyuanli police station, that the attacker appeared to be non-Chinese.

The victim, who told the police that he was from the Israeli embassy, was taken to hospital in a police car.

One witness said the attack took place outside a supermarket in the Chaoyang district, about 1.5km (less than one mile) from the Israeli embassy.

She said she heard someone screaming and then saw a bloodied man in a plaid shirt resting against a car.

Police arrived at the scene about a few minutes later and an ambulance followed. A passer-by who could speak English helped the victim talk to the police.

The police inspected the crime scene, took photographs and approached the surrounding shops for CCTV footage before leaving about an hour later.

Later in the evening, at least three police cars could be seen at the scene.

Another witness said the screams outside the supermarket attracted shoppers, some of whom called the police.

He said he saw a tall, thin man in a white top armed with a knife leave the scene and head west.

Nicolas Burns, the US ambassador to China, said he was “shocked by the attack”. In post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he wrote: “I spoke with Israel’s ambassador to China, Irit Ben-Abba, and have offered our full support to the Israeli embassy and Israeli community in China.”

Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of tabloid Global Times, condemned the attack, describing it as an act of terrorism.

“Such an attack, no matter what the purpose, has seriously broken the law on Chinese territory, and should be pursued by the law,” he wrote on the social media platform Weibo.

He said the Chinese public “firmly opposes terrorism”, and any illegal and radical behaviour related to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians will not be “accepted or welcomed”.

He also said that while it is “natural that people would associate the attack” with the current conflict in the Middle East, they should wait for “further official information about who the attacker is and whether [that attack] is motivated by the conflict.”

A policeman at Xinyuanli police station said he was “not aware” of the case, when contacted by phone.

The public security bureau in Chaoyang, the district where most foreign embassies are located, did not answer the phone.

On Friday evening, a police car and a number of officers in plain clothes were seen outside the Israeli embassy in Beijing. There was also a police car and at least two plain clothes officers on duty outside the Palestinian embassy.

Chinese diplomats have pledged to work towards a ceasefire and have called for “peaceful coexistence” between the two sides.

They have also repeated Beijing’s long-standing support for the Palestinian side, but Israel has expressed “deep disappointment” over China’s response to the attacks by Hamas.