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Two people have been killed in a knife and car attack at a synagogue in Manchester that took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Greater Manchester Police said they shot the attacker at 9.38am on Thursday, seven minutes after being called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, where a man had driven a car at members of the public and stabbed people.
GMP later confirmed that the attacker had been killed. The police force said officers had to deal with “suspicious items” on the attacker’s person before they could verify his death, adding that a bomb disposal unit was on the scene.
It said that a controlled explosion was carried out in order to get access to the suspect’s vehicle.
According to data from the Community Security Trust, a UK charity that tracks antisemitism, the Manchester attack would be the first fatal attack targeting Jews in the UK in at least 30 years.
But it comes against the backdrop of a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the country, with the CST recording 1,521 incidents in the first half of the year.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer returned to London early from a summit in Copenhagen to chair the UK government’s Cobra emergency response group.
Starmer said he was “appalled” by Thursday’s incident, adding that the timing of the attack on Yom Kippur “makes it all the more horrific”.
He added: “Additional police assets are being deployed to synagogues across the country, and we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe.”
Witnesses told police that one of the victims was a security guard at the synagogue. Worshippers barricaded themselves inside as the attack took place.
Greater Manchester Police said that in addition to the fatalities, three other people were in a serious condition after the attack.
GMP has declared “Plato”, which refers to emergency responses to large-scale incidents including possible terrorist attacks.
Specialist counter-terrorist police, officers armed with machine guns and members of the army were seen at the site.
Footage of the scene shared on social media showed the attacker writhing on the ground within the gates of the synagogue when police shot him. An officer shouted to a nearby crowd “he has a bomb” and “move back”.
A damaged black Kia car can be seen near the gates to the synagogue having been driven off the road.
Early on Thursday afternoon, a large police cordon was in place in Crumpsall, the Manchester suburb where the attack occurred, which is multicultural with a large Jewish community.
A helicopter remained overhead and members of the public had gathered.
A Jewish woman who lives nearby told the Financial Times that all the nearby synagogues were on “lockdown”, adding that the situation was “very worrying”.
