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MANCHESTER, England — A 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent named Jihad Al-Shamie unleashed terror on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar Thursday, ramming his car into worshippers outside an Orthodox synagogue in northern England before stabbing two to death. Police shot the suspect dead at the scene, declaring it a terrorist attack as the nation reeled.
The assault unfolds: Greater Manchester Police were called to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation around 9:30 a.m., just after Yom Kippur services began. Al-Shamie, who entered the U.K. as a child and gained citizenship in 2006, drove straight at pedestrians, then leaped out wielding a knife.
Witnesses like neighbor Chava Lewin described chaos: a bang like a firework, an erratic crash into the gates, then stabbing frenzy targeting a security guard and anyone nearby. “She thought maybe he had a heart attack,” Lewin said of the driver’s initial swerve. “The second he got out, he started stabbing.”
Brave security guards and congregants held the line, stopping him from breaching the prayer hall. Minutes later, armed officers fired shots. Social media video captured the horror: guns trained on the assailant sprawled under the synagogue’s blue Star of David, a bystander yelling about a bomb as he tried to rise—then a gunshot drops him. Nearby, a body lay in a blood pool on the sidewalk. Police detonated an explosive to search his car but confirmed no bomb; his vest just mimicked one, delaying death confirmation.
The toll: Two Jewish victims killed—one apparently shot accidentally by police in the melee, per reports. Three others hospitalized in serious condition: one stabbed, one hit by the car, a third possibly injured subduing the attacker. A fourth sought treatment, details unclear. Authorities are notifying families and probing motives; initial checks show Al-Shamie wasn’t flagged in U.K. counter-terror deradicalization programs.
Three arrests followed: two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s, all on terrorism suspicions. Police invoked “Operation Plato”—the U.K.’s code for marauding terror attacks—triggering a full emergency response.
Leaders condemn, security ramps up: British PM Keir Starmer, cutting short a Copenhagen summit, called it a “vile” assault on Jews for being Jewish. “I promise you… this Britain will come together to wrap our arms around your community,” he vowed, pledging visible police boosts at synagogues nationwide. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood echoed: government-wide security surge for Jewish sites. She visited the scene with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson.
UN chief Antonio Guterres labeled it “particularly heinous” on Yom Kippur: “Houses of worship are sacred places where people can go to find peace.” Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “Our hearts are with the families… Weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more.” King Charles III and Queen Camilla: “Deeply shocked and saddened… Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.”
Rabbi Jonathan Romain, head of Britain’s Rabbinic Court: “This is every rabbi’s or every Jewish person’s worst nightmare… a time of mass gathering on the most sacred day.”
A grim context: This echoes Manchester’s scars—the 2017 Ariana Grande concert bombing that killed 22. Antisemitism has surged post-Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Gaza war: over 1,500 incidents in the U.K.’s first half of 2025, per Community Security Trust—second-highest ever.
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