Police in the United Kingdom have confirmed that three people died following an attack outside a synagogue in the north of Manchester, including the suspected perpetrator, who was shot by police in what they have described as a “terror” act.
Two people have been arrested over the attack, the Metropolitan Police’s head of counter terrorism policing Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said. Police added that there was no ongoing risk to the public following Thursday’s violence.
The Greater Manchester Police initially said in a series of posts on X that they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall shortly after 9.30am (08:30 GMT) by a member of the public, who said he had witnessed a car being rammed into people and that one man had been stabbed.
A bomb disposal unit had been called and was at the scene, it said, adding that three other people remain in a serious condition.
According to them, shots were fired by officers at 9:38am. “One man has been shot, believed to be the offender,” said one post. By 9:41am, paramedics had arrived at the scene, tending to four people with injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds, they said.
Police said on X they had “declared Plato” – the national codeword used by emergency services when responding to what they describe as a “marauding terror attack”.
Sam Martin, a 41-year-old man from nearby Bowkervale, has been living in the area for seven years.
“As you can see, this is an [affluent] neighbourhood, look at all the electric cars,” he told Al Jazeera.
Following the incident, an official told the AFP news agency that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would depart early from a summit of the European Political Community, an intergovernmental forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of the continent, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Speaking before his flight home, Starmer said additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the UK.
Credit: aljazeera.com
