A suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem was thwarted Monday, after a 25-year-old Palestinian was caught carrying a bomb in a bag on a main city thoroughfare, police said.The male suspect, a West Bank resident, was stopped by police on the city’s Jaffa Road near the Jaffa Gate for a routine security check during the late-morning incident.

The man was arrested on the scene, after the estimated five kilograms of explosives were found in his bag.

During his initial police interrogation, the suspect confessed that he was carrying a bomb and said that he came to the area to carry out a terror attack, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

The Palestinian had planned to blow himself up in a suicide bombing, deputy Jerusalem police chief Shimon Koren told reporters.