- The Manchester police activate the protocol against terror response.
- PM stolls chairman of the emergency meeting after leaving the summit early.
- King Charles, Israel condemns attacks on Yom Kippur as terrible.
Two people were killed on Thursday and three severely wounded outside a packed synagogue in Manchester in a car and stabbing attacks, with the suspect assumed shot by British police.
When the Jewish community marked the holiday in Yom Kippur in the northwestern city, the police were called to the incident and activated a national terror-response protocol.
The attack hit days ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas’ 7. October 2023, attacks on Israe, L, which triggered a tough offensive in Gaza and inflamed passions in Britain.
Prime Minister Keir Stormer quickly condemned the attack as “terrible,” and announced that security was increased by British synagogues.
He left a European political summit in Denmark early to be chairman of an emergency security meeting in London.
King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and sad to learn about the horrible attack in Manchester, especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community”.
The Greater Manchester police declared a “major incident” shortly after. 9:30 (0830 GMT) after officers were called to Heaton Park Hebrew Church Synagogue in the Crumpsall neighborhood.
The force initially said that paramedics treated four people for “damage caused by both the vehicle and stinging wounds” while confirming that firearms officers had shot a man “assumed to be the offender”.
Within hours, it announced that two people had died and the suspected offender who was shot by officers was “also believed to be deceased”.
Police said the death could not be confirmed due to “suspicious items on his person”, noting that a bombing disposal unit was on the scene.
Three people were also in a “serious condition,” police added.
Stormmer said he was horrified and promised to “do everything to keep our Jewish community safe”.
“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more awful,” he added.
Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was “abominable and deeply worrying” that “such an act of violence should be performed on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar”.
“The security and security of Jewish communities in the UK must be guaranteed,” it added to X.
Police said officers first responded to calls from the public about a car driving into people outside the synagogue, and reported that a security guard had been attacked with a knife.
Told a witness BBC radio He saw the police shoot a man after a car accident.
“They give him a few warnings he didn’t hear until they opened fire,” he said.
“He went down on the floor and then he started coming up again, and then they shot him again.”
Police said “a large number of people worshiping at the synagogue … were held inside while the immediate area was done safely,” but then evacuated.
Manchester -Mayor Andy Burnham told BBC Police had “treated it very quickly with some amazing support from the public”.
He urged people to “not speculate on social media” while noting that the Jewish community “will be very concerned with the news”.
The city, famous all over the world for its two Premier League football clubs and industrial history, is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in England.
It made up more than 28,000 in 2021 according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
MP Graham Stringer said the area was home to both major Jewish and Muslim communities.
“On the whole, community relationships are excellent between all the different ethnic groups and religious groups,” he said BBC radio Manchester.
Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that records anti -Semitic events said it was “working with police and the local Jewish community”.
“This seems to be a shaky attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year,” CST added.
The city has witnessed several deadly terrorist attacks, especially in 2017, when Salman Abedi detonated a homemade suicide bomb outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.
It killed 22 people, some of them children, and hurt hundreds more.
