Israeli police fatally shot an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem on Saturday on suspicion that he was carrying a weapon, Israeli and Palestinian media reported.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that the victim is Eyad al-Halak, 32, from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz.

The Palestinian paper said Halak had a "special needs" disability, while the Israeli newspaper Haaretz ​​​said the man attended and worked in a special-needs school just metres away from where he was killed.

"Police units on patrol there spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol. They called upon him to stop and began to chase after him on foot. During the chase officers also opened fire at the suspect," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.