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British authorities have arrested three people on suspicion of being involved in the attack that killed two people outside a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday morning.
The attack took place at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in north Manchester, after worshippers had gathered to celebrate Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent who has been named as the attacker, was shot dead by police at the scene.
On Friday, police said the two victims were Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both of whom were Jewish men who lived in the Manchester suburb of Crumpsall.
Three others sustained “serious injuries” in what the British authorities declared was a terrorist attack.
In a statement made on Thursday, counter-terrorism police confirmed that two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s had been detained on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that Al-Shamie, who entered the country as a young child and received citizenship in 2006, was not known to police or to Prevent, the UK counter-terrorism programme that seeks to identify those at risk of radicalisation.
The attacker drove a vehicle at members of the public before starting to stab people. The suspicious device he wore was later deemed not to pose any danger.
Responding to the tragedy, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in the UK, said it was the consequence of “an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred” on the streets and online.
“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” he wrote on social media.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the “vile” assailant who “attacked Jews because they are Jews”.
Addressing the British Jewish community, the country’s leader vowed to do “everything in my power to guarantee you the security that you deserve”.
He added that the country would come together “to wrap our arms around your community and show you that Britain is a place where you and your family are safe, secure and belong.”
Since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, and the resulting Israeli offensive in Gaza, the UK has seen a sharp spike in the number of recorded antisemitic incidents, with more than 1,500 reported from January until June, the second-highest ever six-month total.
Additional sources • AP