The suspect who allegedly rammed a car into and stabbed people at a synagogue in England, resulting in two deaths and injuring three, was shot by police on Thursday.
The suspect hit people at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, NBC News reported.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed the two deaths in a post on X and said that the suspect was “believed to be deceased.”
However, they said that they can’t confirm the death of the suspect because of “suspicious items” on the body. Bomb disposal officers were on the scene.
The police earlier posted on X that a major incident was declared after a member of the public reported that they had “witnessed a car being driven toward members of the public” and that one “man had been stabbed” near the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, an area with a large Jewish community.
A man “believed to be the offender” had been shot by officers, police said minutes later.
“Paramedics arrived at the scene at 9:41 (4:41 a.m. ET) and are tending to members of the public, currently four members of the public with injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds,” the police posted on X.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted on X that he was “appalled” by the attack.
“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific. My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services and all the first responders,” said Starmer, whose wife Victoria is Jewish.
He later told reporters at a European Summit in Copenhagen that he was immediately traveling back to London to chair a meeting of COBRA, the UK’s emergency response committee.
“I’m already able to say that additional police assets are being deployed to synagogues across the country, and we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe,” Starmer said.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, told BBC Radio that the “immediate danger appears to be over.”
He said firearms officers were deployed “as police continued to receive further reports from members of the public that a security guard had been attacked with a knife.”
Graham Stringer, the member of parliament who represents the area, said that it was a “dreadful attack designed to damage the Jewish community and damage inter-faith and inter-community relationships.”
The Northwest Ambulance Service said that it was “assessing the situation and working with other members of the emergency services.”
