Flowers outside the Manchester synagogue, where multiple people were killed on Yom Kippur.Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
A man drove a car into people and stabbed them outside a synagogue in northwest England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Two people were killed and at least three were hurt in the attack Thursday at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Manchester area. The attacker was shot and killed by police, who called his actions a terrorist attack.
On Friday, police said one of the men who died in the Manchester synagogue attack was accidentally shot by police and that one of the injured was also shot by officers. Here’s what to know.
7-minute attack
- At 9:31 a.m. on Thursday, police were called to the synagogue in the Manchester suburb of Crumpsall, about 320 kilometres northwest of London, by a member of the public, who said he had seen a car being driven toward people, and that one man had been stabbed.
- At 9:34 a.m., police were on site. Worshippers had barricaded themselves inside the synagogue to prevent the assailant from getting inside.
- At 9:37 a.m., police declared the national code word — Plato — for first responders when concluding that a “marauding terror attack” is taking place.
- At 9:38 a.m., the assailant had been shot dead by police. A suspicious vest worn by the assailant was later found to be fake.
The victims
Greater Manchester Police said two people died during the attack: Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both members of the local Jewish community.
On Friday, police said Daulby appears to have been accidentally shot by a police officer as worshippers tried to stop the attacker entering the building synagogue. Daulby’s family said in a statement that he “was a hero” whose “final act was one of profound courage.”
Cravitz was killed outside the synagogue, according to the synagogue’s rabbi, Daniel Walker.
Police also said that one of the three people who were hospitalized also suffered a gunshot wound. One of the others sustained a stab wound while the second was struck by the car driven by the attacker.
The suspect
Police said the man responsible for the attack was Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who came to the country as a young child and became a citizen in 2006.
Authorities said he was not previously known to police or the security services but confirmed Friday that he was on bail over an alleged rape.
Deadly attack at Manchester synagogue declared a terrorist incident, U.K. police say
Six other people have been arrested since the attack on suspicion of preparing or committing acts of terrorism, though police have not released details about them. The three men and three women are in custody but have not been charged, and police said they are seeking warrants to detain all six further.
Faraj Al-Shamie, the father of the attacker, expressed the family’s “deep shock and sorrow over what has happened.”
“The Al-Shamie family in the U.K. and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians,” he said in a post on Facebook.
Act of terrorism
Police said late Friday that Al-Shamie “may have been influenced by extreme Islamist ideology” but that establishing the full circumstances of the attack is “likely to take some time.”
The attack took place on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Synagogues are filled with people on the holy day.
Around six hours after the incident, the Metropolitan Police in London, which leads counterterror policing operations across the U.K., confirmed that the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack and that patrols at synagogues and other Jewish sites are being stepped up “to provide reassurance.”
Government response
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer returned early from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, to London where he chaired an emergency security meeting. Afterward, he condemned the “vile individual” for attacking Jews “because they are Jews.” He also promised that he would do everything in his power to guarantee the security of the Jewish population, “starting with a more visible police presence.”
Mr. Starmer visited the site on Friday with his wife, Victoria Starmer, who is Jewish. And at Westminster, flags in the House of Commons at half mast.
Jewish community’s reaction
In a statement released on Friday, Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Rabbi Daniel Walker, its president Hilary Foxler and chairman of trustees Alan Levy, described the terror attack as a “desecration” and “an episode that has changed us all forever.”
Two people have been killed and three others seriously wounded in a synagogue attack in northern England, according to police. Greater Manchester Police said the suspect is also believed to be dead.
The Associated Press
Rising antisemitism
Britain has traditionally been a safe area for Jewish people though antisemitic incidents have soared following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s continuing military campaign in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism in the U.K.
More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest reported since the record set a year earlier. Mr. Starmer acknowledged that antisemitism is “a hatred that is rising once again, and Britain must defeat it once again.”
With reports from Paul Waldie