The reputed head of one of Israel's most notorious crime families was killed on Monday when his car blew up in Tel Aviv, sparking fears of an all-out underworld war, police said.
Yaakov Alperon was killed while driving his car in the centre of the coastal city after attending court with his son Dror who was charged with blackmail and extortion.
"This was an extremely serious incident whose consequences are clear to us," Ilan Franco, head of the police Tel Aviv district, told reporters at the site.
"This incident was probably part of an underworld power struggle in Tel Aviv and possibly beyond Tel Aviv," he said.
Police now fear that the elimination of such a high-profile figure could spark deadly retaliation and possibly a wider war in Israel's underworld.
"The Alperon family will first check who was behind the explosion and then they will react," former top police officer David Tzur told the Ynet news website.
Another police official told AFP that "there is no doubt that the assassination of such an important figure in the underworld in the heart of Tel Aviv can unleash a spiral of violence."
Army radio said the assassination was probably part of an ongoing violent dispute between Alperon and another crime family over the control of a plastic bottle recycling industry in the centre of the country.
Two bystanders, including a 13-year-old boy, were also lightly wounded in the explosion, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Witnesses said the blast was massive.
"A white car blew up and its driver fell out on the road. The explosion was huge," said Yonathan Haefrati, 42.
"We heard a huge explosion that shook the ground. Lots of ambulances came streaming in very quickly," another witness said.
There have been a number of deadly attacks in Israel's criminal underworld in recent years that have also claimed the lives of innocent bystanders.
