Deadly Manchester, UK attack on Synagogue

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Police declared a terrorist incident after two people were killed and four others were seriously injured on Thursday when a man rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed people at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester.

It came as worshippers observed Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of counter-terrorism policing, told reporters the attack had been declared a terrorist incident. The suspect was fatally shot by police, he said.

Two people were killed during the incident at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall and three others were in “serious condition,” he said.

Authorities believe they know the suspect’s identity but have not released his name as they are “unable to confirm at this stage,” Taylor added. Two arrests have also been made in connection to the attack.

London's Metropolitan Police is responsible for dealing with all counter terrorism investigations throughout the U.K. and has taken over the investigation from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which initially dealt with the incident.

GMP earlier said they couldn’t confirm the suspect’s death because of “suspicious items” on the body, which were being dealt with by bomb disposal officers. He was wearing a vest that gave the appearance of an explosive device, but police later determined it was not a viable threat.

The force first posted on X that officers were responding to calls at the synagogue in Crumpsall at 9:31 a.m. local time (4:31 a.m. ET).

The attacker drove directly at members of the public outside of the synagogue before attacking people with a knife, GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said at the same news conference where Taylor spoke.

Watson said worshippers prevented the suspect from gaining access to the synagogue.

Within seven minutes of the attack, the suspect was shot and killed by police, Watson said.

“We can confirm that two members of our Jewish community have sadly died as a result of this attack,” he said, adding that four people had been injured in total and remained in hospital.

A video uploaded to social media, which was verified by NBC News, shows a man lying on the ground outside the synagogue while two officers point their guns at him. When the man tries to get up an officer fires a single round.

The same video shows a man wearing a Jewish yarmulke lying in a pool of blood just yards away.

Watson said it “will take time” to understand the full circumstances of the attack.

In a separate post on X, GMP said a large number of worshippers were kept inside the synagogue right after the attack but have since been allowed to leave.

Taylor, of the Metropolitan Police, said patrols at synagogues and Jewish sites had increased across the country. Police were “mobilizing fast,” he said.

"At counter terrorism police, we’re deploying all of our capabilities in response to what has happened, and we have resources from across our network involved," Taylor added.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was at a European Summit in Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, traveled back to London to chair a meeting of COBRA, the U.K.'s emergency response committee.

Starmer described the suspect as a "vile individual" who attacked Jews "because they are Jews." Britain is a county that "stands up to hatred" and one that welcomed many Jewish families following World War II, Starmer noted in his address to the country.

But it's also a place where Jewish communities require round the clock protection, he continued.

"And while this is not a new hate — this is something Jews have always lived with — we must be clear," Starmer said. "It is a hatred that is rising once again, and Britain must defeat it once again."

The prime minister expressed solidarity and sadness with the Jewish community, promising a more visible police presence to protect them.

King Charles III said in a statement that he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the horrific attack in Manchester, especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community.”

The Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity that provides security services, said it was "working with police and the local Jewish community."

Manchester police say they believe the synagogue attacker is 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent.

He was wearing a device at the time of the attack - officers have since said it was "not viable".

Police have declared it a terrorist incident, and say they are working to understand the motivation behind the attack as the investigation continues.

One of the two men killed in a car and knife attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester appears to have been accidentally shot by a police officer as worshippers tried to stop the attacker entering the building, law enforcement authorities said Friday.

Police said local residents Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died in the attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in the Manchester suburb of Crumpsall on Thursday. Three other people are hospitalized in serious condition.

Greater Manchester Police chief Stephen Watson said a pathologist has provisionally determined that one of those killed had a gunshot wound. He said the attacker did not have a gun, and the injury may have been "a tragic and unforeseen consequence" of police actions.

He said one of the hospitalized victims also appears to have been shot.

"It is believed that both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers acted bravely to prevent the attacker from gaining entry," Watson said.

The assault took place as people gathered at the Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, said the attack was the result of "an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred" on the streets and online.

"This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come," he wrote on social media.

Here’s a summary of today’s developments:

The head of counter-terrorism policing Laurence Taylor has confirmed the suspicious device worn by the synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie 35, was “a fake”

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will investigate “whether police may have caused or contributed to the death” of Adrian Daulby , 53. Daulby was inside the synagogue, helping to barricade the doors against the attacker when he suffered a fatal gunshot wound.

There is no evidence that a non-police issue firearm was discharged at the scene, the watchdog added.

Melvin Cratz, 66, has been named as the other man who died in the attack. A security guard for the synagogue, he “courageously stopped the attacker from entering the building”, according to the police.

Three other victims of the attack remain in hospital with serious injuries. The congregation’s Rabbi, Daniel Walker, said two of them had “blocked the terrorist” with their bodies.

It has emerged that Al-Shamie was on police bail for an alleged rape when he carried out the attack, and is believed to have other criminal convictions – although he was not on the radar of counter-terrorism officers or MI5.

Three more people have been arrested by police investigating the attack, bringing the total number of people held on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism to six, Greater Manchester police has said.

Writing in The Jewish Chronicle, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, has urged people planning to protest in Manchester and London this weekend to “respect the grief of British Jews”. “This is a moment of mourning. It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain.”

The deputy prime minister David Lammy was heckled and booed by some of the crowd as he addressed a vigil close to the scene of the Manchester synagogue attack. People shouted “shame on you” and “you have blood on your hands” as he took to the stage. He told the vigil that “we must stand in grief, in solidarity and in defiance”.

An Israeli government minister has said Israel plans to host a visit by Tommy Robbinsonin mid-October, describing him as a “British patriot” and “a courageous leader on the frontline against radical Islam”. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a former member of the Far Right British National Party (BNP) and a former leader of the English Defence League.

Eyewitnesses described the terrorist shouting: This is what they get for killing our children” as he tried to enter the synagogue.

In a statement on Facebook, Al-Shamie’s family said they were in “profound shock” and wanted to distance themselves from what they called his “heinous act”.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy rowed back on claims Nigel Farage "flirted with Hitler Youth".

Lammy's comments were an apparent reference to allegations that emerged in 2013 that Farage sang Nazi songs as a teenager.

The Reform UK leader denied the allegations at the time, which centred on a claim that as a schoolboy in the late 1970s and early 1980s he and others marched through a village "shouting Hitler Youth songs".

"flirting with Hitler youth" sounds a lot worse than "singing Hitler youth songs".

Not sure if Lammy was clickbaiting

^^^ Fair enough, although claiming "flirting with Hitler youth" sounds a lot worse than "singing Hitler youth songs".