- Manchester police activate the counter-terrorist response protocol.
- PM Starmer Chairs Emergency Meeting after leaving the summit early.
- King Charles, Israel condemns the attack on Yom Kippur as horrible.
Two people were killed Thursday and three seriously injured in front of a synagogue crowded in Manchester in a car and a stab attack, the suspect thought dead by British police.
While the Jewish community marked Yom Kippur’s holidays in the northwest city, the police were called to the incident, activating a national terrorism-response protocol.
The attack struck days before the second anniversary of October 7, 2023 of Hamas, raids in Israel, which sparked a fierce offensive in Gaza, igniting passions in Great Britain.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer quickly condemned the attack as “horrible” and announced that security was stimulated during British synagogues.
He left a European political summit in Denmark early to chair an emergency security meeting in London.
King Charles III said that he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened to learn the horrible attack in Manchester, in particular such an important day for the Jewish community”.
The Grand Manchester police said a “major incident” shortly after 9:30 am (0830 GMT) after police were called to the Heaton Park’s Hebrew Congregation in the Crumpsall district.
The force initially declared that paramedical paramedics treated four people for “injuries caused both by the vehicle and injury by stab” while confirming that the police had shot a man “who would be the offender”.
In a few hours, he announced that two people had died and the alleged offender killed by police officers “was also considered deceased.”
Police said the death could not be confirmed due to “suspicious articles on his person”, noting that a unit for eliminating bombs was on the scene.
Three people were also in a “serious condition,” added the police.
Starmer said he was dismayed and undertook to “do everything to ensure the security of our Jewish community”.
“The fact that this took place on Yom Kippour, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, makes it even more horrible,” he added.
The Embassy of Israel in the United Kingdom said that it was “heinous and deeply painful” that “such an act of violence should be perpetrated the most holy day of the Jewish calendar”.
“The security and security of Jewish communities in the United Kingdom must be guaranteed,” he added on X.
Police said the police first answered the public calls about a car that went to people outside the synagogue, as well as information that a security officer was attacked with a knife.
A witness said BBC radio He saw the police shoot a man after a car accident.
“They give him some warnings, he did not listen to until they opened fire,” he said.
“He went down to the ground, then he started to get up, then they pulled him again.”
The police said that “a large number of people adored at the synagogue … were kept inside while the immediate area was safe”, but then evacuated.
The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, said to Bbc The police “treated themselves very quickly with incredible support from public members”.
He urged people “not to speculate on social media”, while noting that the Jewish community “will be very worried by the news”.
The city, famous worldwide for its two Premier League football clubs and industrial history, is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the United Kingdom.
He totaled more than 28,000 in 2021, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
MP Graham Stringer said the region housed both major Jewish and Muslim communities.
“Overall, community relations are excellent between all different ethnic groups and religious groups,” he said BBC radio Manchester.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that records anti -Semitic incidents, said that he “worked with the police and the local Jewish community”.
“It seems to be a terrible attack on the most holy day of the Jewish year,” added CST.
The city has experienced several deadly terrorist attacks, especially in 2017 when Salman Abedi exploded a homemade suicide bomb in front of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.
He killed 22 people, some of them, and injured hundreds of others.
