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JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Eight people were wounded early Monday when a Palestinian crashed a stolen taxi into a group of border guards outside a Tel Aviv nightclub, then attacked them with a knife, Israeli police and media said.

Four border guards and two would-be club goers were hurt in the attack which took place outside HaOman 17 nightclub in south Tel Aviv, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, saying one was critically injured, two others were in serious condition, and the rest sustained light wounds.

"At 1:40 am (2240 GMT) the attacker, a young man of 20 from (the northern West Bank city of) Nablus, stole a taxi in Tel Aviv," Samri told AFP, saying the taxi driver had been lightly wounded in the hand when he was dragged out of his car.

"He then rammed a group of border police who were standing in front of HaOman 17, injuring two of them," she said.

"Then he got out of the car and attacked passers-by and the border guards with a knife, injuring another four people -- two of them border guards -- while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," she added.

The attacker was subdued, sustaining light injuries in the process, and was taken to hospital where he was interrogated by the Shin Bet internal security agency, she said.

Israeli media reported that eight were injured in the attack.

"The police have been in a state of very high alert and have increased the number of patrols across the country since the attacks north of Eilat," she said, referring to a series of attacks by gunmen on August 18 which killed eight Israelis on a desert road near the Red Sea resort town.

Since then, military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz has beefed up the number of troops along the border with the Sinai peninsula and with the Gaza Strip in a bid to thwart any further attacks, a military spokesman told AFP.

Ma'an staff in Bethlehem contributed to this report