Two suspected pranksters have been arrested after appearing to spray Orthodox Jews with water pistols in a cruel targeted prank.
The men, aged 26 and 36, were taken into custody for questioning on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault on Thursday.
Police officers made the arrests in response to a video, which was widely shared online, of two men driving around Salford and spraying members of the Jewish community with water guns.
In the short social media clip, the pair, who have been branded ‘playground bullies’, can be heard cruelly laughing as they soak innocent passersby on the street.
In another clip, one of the so-called ‘pranksters’ held his phone near a Jewish man before playing an Apple Pay sound effect and saying: ‘You are very rich, I just got £60 from you.’
Greater Manchester Police have also seized the vehicle believed to be the one seen in the footage, along with the water pistol suspected to have been used during the so-called ‘prank’.
The force insisted it had a ‘zero-tolerance approach to hate crime in any form’ and said it is treating this incident with the ‘utmost seriousness’.
Chief Inspector Simon Ashcroft, of GMP’s Salford district, added: ‘We are also aware from other footage that there may be further victims, and we urge anyone who believes they have been targeted to contact GMP or the Community Security Trust.’
The video was eventually removed from Instagram and Tiktok and the account has since uploaded another video, where they are not targeting orthodox views with the water pistol.
Before they were deleted, the clips reached nearly a million likes on Instagram and included anti-semitic comments including rat, pig and nose emojis.
The posts were later edited to include a disclaimer, The Telegraph reported, which read: ‘This video was made purely for humorous purposes. It is just a joke and not hate speech in any way. Please do not take it the wrong way.’
But the clips have since sparked fury from anti-semitism campaigners, who demanded action be taken against the pair.
A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Anti-semitism said: ‘These men – who appear to be driving around and targeting Jews with a water gun – are behaving like playground bullies.
‘Harassing Jewish people is not a prank but anti-semitic abuse, and doing so from the comfort of your car is particularly cowardly.
‘We are also aware that this is not the first time that one of these men has targeted Jews for videos on social media.
‘Our legal team is examining the footage and assessing options. Those responsible must be identified and held to account.’
The video was shared to the TikTok account konsp1ra who has also posted videos at a boxing club and asking people if they want to fight the police.
In 2024, religious hate crime rose by 25 per cent. With crimes targeted at Jewish people more than doubling from the previous year.
In London, the number of anti-semitic hate crimes reported to Met Police corresponded to nearly one per every 1,000 Jews of the 270,000 that live in London, making it eight times higher than the rate per 1,000 Muslims living in London.
Figures from the Community Security Trust’s (CST) Anti-semitic Incidents Report from January to June this year state that 1,978 instances of anti-Jewish hate were recorded across the UK in the first six months of this year, up 105 per cent on the same period last year.
Just over half were linked to, or referenced, the Hamas atrocities of October 7 last year, Israel, the Palestinian territories or the subsequent war, the charity said.
The total included one incident of ‘extreme violence’ – an alleged arson attack on a residential property – during the period, the report said.
Cases of assault jumped 41 per cent period-on-period from 86 to 121.
