The Times of Israel reports: A policeman was present during a mass brawl in Jerusalem Thursday night that nearly left an Arab teen dead, but reportedly did nothing to stop what officials are calling an attempted “lynch.”

An eighth person was arrested late Wednesday in the Zion Square incident which officials say nearly killed 17-year-old East Jerusalemite Jamal Julani. Police are continuing to investigate the beating, which has roiled the country over the racist nature of the attack.

Eyewitnesses said they called the police at the start of the brawl, some 40 minutes before Julani was severely beaten. As a result, a policeman arrived on a motorcycle, but he stood and watched without stopping the mob as violence unfolded, Maariv reported on Wednesday.

“He was right in the mess,” and could see and hear everything going on, one of the witnesses told the Hebrew daily. The policeman “saw how they [the mob] were chasing Arabs and hitting them, but he didn’t care,” the witness said.

Phone records from the night of the attack show that both witnesses spoke to the police dispatcher, Maariv wrote.

The police confirmed that the policeman arrived at the scene. A Jerusalem police spokesperson did not address the questions of whether he witnessed the beating and whether he intervened or not.