Three people were killed and six were hurt Saturday after a car crashed into a restaurant in central Tel Aviv.

According to a preliminary investigation, the driver was speeding and lost control of the car, first hitting a pole and then plowing into patrons sitting at outside tables at Furama, a Chinese restaurant on the corner of Ben Yehuda and Idelson streets. Aside from the driver, who was in his 50s, two men in their 40s and 60s were killed in the incident. A woman in her 30s was moderately injured and five others were lightly hurt.

The incident initially raised suspicions of terrorism but that possibility was soon ruled out. It is believed that the driver suffered a heart attack, causing him to lose control of the car.

"We lay on the ground. We didn't know what was happening; we thought it might be an attack," said the wife of the restaurant's owner. "When I got up I saw a man who was eating at the restaurant hurt and bleeding."

Yael, another eyewitness who lives nearby said she run outside after hearing the crash and she saw people lying on the ground. "At first we thought it was a terror attack, but immediately after seeing the driver we understood that it wasn't."

Police have opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident.