- Follow the latest developments in the Manchester synagogue attack here
Keir Starmer is chairing emergency meetings on the ‘appalling’ Manchester synagogue attack today amid warnings Jewish people no longer feel safe.
The PM said extra police are being deployed to synagogues across the country, as he cut short a summit in Copenhagen to return for a Cobra meeting on the atrocity in Crumpsall.
As cross-party condemnation flowed in, campaigners pointed to mounting pro-Gaza protests in London and other cities – saying violence against Jews was not a surprise.
Sir Keir said: ‘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.’
Speaking as he prepared to board a plane home, Sir Keir added that he was determined to keep the Jewish community safe. ‘I’m already able to say that additional police assets are being deployed to synagogues across country,’ he said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said patrols were being stepped up in Jewish communities.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch – whose party is due to start its conference in the city this weekend – condemned the ‘vile and disgusting’ attack. She warned that ‘many Jewish people in our country feel they’re no longer safe’.
Four people have been injured after a car was driven at a crowd and a man was stabbed outside a synagogue before the suspect was shot by police. Including the attacker three people have been confirmed dead.
Officers were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue at 9.31am today on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
A major incident has been declared and ambulance service and police have enacted ‘Plato’ – the national code-word used by the emergency services when responding to a ‘marauding terror attack’.
Video shared on social media appears to show armed police officers pointing guns at someone laying on the ground. The officers scream at onlookers ‘he’s got a bomb’ and to ‘get back’ and ‘move on’.
The person on the ground is seen starting to get up before there is the sound of a gunshot and they fall to the ground. Another person is also shown lying motionless on the ground outside the synagogue gates with blood around their head.
The premier was seen grim-faced in discussions with fellow leaders including Volodymyr Zelensky this morning as the news emerged.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham – who was doing a radio interview as the news broke – said ‘it is believed that the offender is deceased’.
Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, the mayor said: ‘It is believed that the offender is deceased, although it’s not confirmed.
‘So, that’s what I meant in saying that a degree of reassurance can be given that it’s not a developing, an ongoing, incident.
‘It would appear that it is contained, although, obviously, the scene is very much an active scene.’
Ms Badenoch told BBC Radio Bristol: ‘It looks like an outrageous attack on the Jewish community on their holiest day’.
‘A vile and disgusting attack. I know that many Jewish people in our country feel they’re no longer safe and my heart goes out to the people who have been hurt by this and everyone who’s been affected.’
She added: ‘I want to say to Jewish people all around our country that you belong here. Britain is a country which will look after you.
‘We need to make sure that the rise in antisemitism that we’re seeing in our country is quelled completely.’
In a statement posted on X, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: ‘I am horrified by the news of an attack at a synagogue in Manchester today, on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
‘My first thoughts are with the victims, our brave police and emergency services.
‘I am being kept updated by Greater Manchester Police. I urge people to follow the advice of the emergency services.’
Nigel Farage said: ‘I am horrified by the attack at a synagogue in Manchester today, particularly on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
‘My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected and the Jewish community who will be suffering at this time, and my thanks go to the emergency services.’
Lord Walney, the government’s former extremism adviser, told the BBC Radio 4’s World at One that there was a problem with critics viewing Israel as ‘uniquely evil’ – and blaming British Jews.
‘When you look at the ways in which foreign conflicts are examined in in the mainstream media and in Parliament, and you look at the suffering in, for example, many African nations, the appalling treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China, all of the many areas where people are suffering around the world, and yet, time and again there is a laser-like focus on the perceived wrongdoing of the State of Israel,’ he said.
‘And we do need to examine what the foundations of that are. I think they are deep.
‘And often it becomes a subconscious, disproportionate focus on the idea that Israel is uniquely evil, that Jews are in some way complicit in that. And that is classic, ancient anti-semitism. And it is part of creating this conducive environment leading Jews to feel so vulnerable in this country.’
Tory former Cabinet minister Lord Pickles told Times Radio he had ‘witnessed in the past few years friends who are Jewish who are genuinely concerned about their own safety’.
‘It’s a cliche about what happens to the Jews, happens to the rest of us. They’re on the very front line, being attacked by a number of people who actually want to see the end of liberal democracy, who want to impose a kind of intolerance that we see in other parts of the world,’ he said.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This is a sickening attack on people at a synagogue on Middleton Road in Manchester – on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
‘My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the whole Jewish community here in the UK.
‘I know everyone will want to support the emergency services in their work.
‘I am appalled not only by this brutal attack, but also by the evil that lies behind it.’
