His police Manchester confirmed that the attack committed on Thursday morning (02.10.2025) outside the synagogue of Heaton Park in Krampsal, it is considered a terrorist act with anti -Semitic characteristics. The perpetrator, who initially used a car to drag pedestrians and then attacked the faithful with a knife, fell dead by police fire. He brought “suspicious objects” on him, which forced firefighters. In addition, two more people were arrested.
Testimonies speak of scenes of chaos and panic in Manchester. A security guard received knives during the attack, while the faithful who had been trapped in the synagogue had to be expelled.
“I saw the man attack the people around him and trying to get into the synagogue,” a neighbor told PA. Powerful police forces were immediately developed throughout the area.
Statement from Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson QPM in response to today’s incident on Middleton Road, Crumpsall: pic.twitter.com/fypsRECmTM
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) October 2, 2025
Wave of formal reactions and emotion
King Charles III said “deeply shocked” by this “heinous” attack, which occurred on the sacred day of Judaism. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families,” he said. The Israeli embassy in London condemned the attack as “heinous and deeply worrying”.
French President Emmanuel Macron complained to X “an anti -Semitic terrorist attack”, while European Council President Antonio Costa expressed his solidarity “against anti -Semitism and in all forms of hatred”.
The Community Security Trust (CST), the organization that protects the Jewish community in Britain, has spoken of a “horrible attack”, recalling that more than 1,500 anti -Semitism cases have been recorded in the United Kingdom in the first half of 2025 – the second highest number since 1984.
Escalation of intensity
The attack occurred while the Jewish community of Manchester, which has about 28,000 members, was in a major mobilization for Yom Kipur. It also comes a few days before the second anniversary of Hamas’s deadly raid on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, where more than 1,200 people were killed, mainly civilians, which triggered the war in Gaza.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 66,000 people have lost their lives since then in the Palestinian pocket – numbers that the United Nations considers reliable.