Incident
Witnesses reported that they had seen a man, later identified as the attacker, Jihad al-Shamie, "acting suspiciously" outside the synagogue approximately 15 minutes prior to the attack. He left after being confronted by security. [5] Police were called to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall at 9:31 am BST on 2 October 2025, after callers reported that a driver had driven into pedestrians and begun stabbing people. [6] The attacker himself called 999 and pledged allegiance to Islamic State. [7] Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers declared a major incident and arrived at the scene within seven minutes, shooting the attacker dead at 9:38 am. Residents reported seeing a man with a knife jump out of a moving car that had been driven recklessly. He began stabbing people; others saw people on the ground bleeding. [8] Worshippers had gathered for a Yom Kippur service, which had begun at 9 am. [9] Eyewitnesses inside the synagogue praised rabbi Daniel Walker for protecting congregants by locking them inside the synagogue and keeping the attacker out, before moving them to safety. [10] According to a witness inside the synagogue, the attacker banged his knife on the glass as he tried to get in, shouting "this is what they get for killing our children". [11]
Firearms officers were deployed at 9:34 am as police received further reports that a security guard had been attacked with a knife. GMP declared a major incident shortly before shots were fired by firearms officers at 9:38 am, killing a man believed to be the attacker [12] as well as a worshipper. [13] [14]
At 9:37 am GMP initiated Operation Plato, a protocol used in response to suspected terrorist attacks. The incident was formally declared a terrorist attack later that day. [15] [16] Paramedics arrived at 9:41 am and treated four members of the public for injuries caused by the vehicle and stab wounds. [9] [17]
Around noon, a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene because police believed the attacker was wearing a suicide belt. [18] [6] Police said that they were unable to confirm whether the attacker was dead until the investigation concluded. [16] Investigators would later state the device was "found to be not viable". [6] At 1:23 pm, a loud controlled explosion was reported, [19] which was later confirmed to be from the police gaining access to the attacker's car. [20] Police presence was increased at every synagogue in the Greater Manchester area in the immediate aftermath of the attack. [21] [18]
In a statement on 3 October, Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said that one of the dead victims and one of the hospitalised victims were likely accidentally shot by firearm officers. [13] [22]
Attacker
The attacker was identified as Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old Syrian-born man who as a young child had migrated to the United Kingdom with his family from Homs, [24] [25] following his father who had already settled in England in the 1990s. [26] He had naturalised as a British citizen in 2006 while still a minor. [27] Al-Shamie grew up in Prestwich until around 2010, when the family moved to nearby Crumpsall. [28] The Guardian reported that it appeared that Al-Shamie had Islamic marriages to three different women. Al-Shamie fathered two children with one of the wives, and lived in Prestwich with this wife, their children and his mother. [29] In 2025, al-Shamie was arrested on suspicion of an alleged rape earlier in the year. [29] [30] One of his wives, a Muslim convert, from whom he had initially hidden his other marriages and whose request for a divorce he had refused, reported to police after the attack that he had also raped her. [29] She described al-Shamie as "controlling and abusive". [31]
The mosque at which al-Shamie worshipped, Masjid Sunnah Nelson, was reported to the Charity Commission in November 2023 by the National Secular Society for divisive and antisemitic rhetoric. [32] The mosque's imam, Abul Abbaas Naveed, had referred to Jews as "treacherous" in October 2023, [33] and had taught that a husband has "the first and last word" in a household. [32] Sunnah Nelson is associated with the Salafi movement. [33]
At the time of the attack, al-Shamie resided in the Langley Crescent area of Prestwich, located 2 mi (3.2 km) from the synagogue. [34] [35] According to one of his neighbours, al-Shamie "didn't stand out" and never spoke about politics. [36] He had not been a part of the Prevent counter-terrorism programme that tries to identify people at risk of being radicalised. [37] Although al-Shamie was not known to counter-terrorism police, he had a criminal record with convictions for several minor offences, and at the time of his death was free on bail under investigation for rape. [30] [37] Police are also investigating if he was the author of a death threat sent to Conservative MP John Howell in 2012 after Howell expressed support for Israel. [37] [38] [39]
Following the attacks, al-Shamie's father released a statement believed to have been made on behalf of the family denouncing the attacks. [40] [41] Work by investigative journalists uncovered social media posts where the father had previously expressed support for the Hamas-led attacks on IDF bases during the 7 October 2023 attacks and the 2024 Iranian air strikes on Israel. The posts were deleted after the reporting. [41] [42]
Reactions
Prime Minister Keir Starmer returned from a European Political Community leaders' meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, to chair a COBR emergency meeting. [15] Starmer said at a press conference that the attacker targeted "Jews because they are Jews" and said that the United Kingdom "must defeat this rising hatred". [47] He said that "extra police assets" would be deployed to synagogues across the country due to the attack. [16] Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood echoed this, saying the government "will do whatever is required to keep our Jewish community safe." [46] Mayor of London Sadiq Khan likewise announced there would be a "stepping up (of) patrols in Jewish communities and synagogues across London" by the Metropolitan Police. [18] Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham commended the quick response of the Greater Manchester Police and raised concerns about the fear and sadness caused by the attack, saying that the city would not allow "division in our communities". [46] [48]
Mahmood urged the cancellation of pro-Palestinian marches after the terror attack, backing police calls to halt a major protest planned for Saturday in Trafalgar Square. Hours after the attack, clashes broke out between demonstrators and police outside Downing Street, while Mahmood separately denounced such protests as "un-British", "dishonourable", and "insensitive" to Jewish communities. [49] Defend Our Juries defended its intention to go ahead with a protest against the proscription of Palestine Action on the Saturday following the attack, saying that conflating the actions of Israel with Jewish people around the world could fuel antisemitism. [50] Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust, founded to provide security to Britain's Jewish community, called the decision "remarkably self absorbed and insensitive". [51]
British Jews expressed shock and concern over the attack, with Britain's chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis highlighting the rise in antisemitism and that the attack was the result of the unchecked rise. [3] British Christian and Muslim community leaders condemned the attack and offered prayers and support to the Jewish people in the UK. [48]
King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were "deeply shocked and saddened" and that their "thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this appalling incident". [52] The Prince and Princess of Wales also praised the swift actions of emergency services. [53] Amnesty International UK expressed sadness over the events, calling it a "horrific act of violence that has taken the lives of two innocent people and injured many more". [54]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed sympathy, saying "Israel grieves with the Jewish community in the UK after the barbaric terror attack in Manchester", adding "as I warned at the UN: weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism. Only strength and unity can defeat it." [55] [46] Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar accused the British authorities of not doing enough to curb rising antisemitism in Britain, stating that "blatant and rampant antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement" had become common. [56]
The deputy prime minister, David Lammy, was booed and barracked on 3 October when he addressed a vigil in Manchester. [23]
On 4 October, a previously planned pro-Palestinian protest was held in north Manchester, with over 100 in attendance. [57]
The Daily Telegraph reported that Abul Abbaas Naveed in October 2023, the imam of al-Shamie's mosque, Masjid Sunnah Nelson, made derogatory remarks about Jewish people, quoting a hadith regarding Zaynab bint Al-Harith that he said "shows us the traits of the Yahud [Jews], how treacherous they are and how much they betray and oppress people". Naveed denied responsibility for al-Shamie's radicalisation, saying that there was "nothing in the teachings itself" that would have radicalised him. [33] Naveed had also used inflammatory rhetoric about women and non-Muslims. [32]
The National Secular Society, which in 2023 reported the charity behind Masjid Sunnah Nelson to the Charity Commission for extremist rhetoric, along with over 40 other Islamic charities, [58] said that "charities promoting divisive or extremist rhetoric under the guise of 'advancing religion' serve no public benefit", and called on the government to "reform charity law to ensure that only organisations which genuinely advance the public good – rather than fuel division or violence – are afforded charitable privileges". [32] The Charity Commission responded saying that it had given "guidance" to the mosque about not using "inflammatory language". The Campaign Against Antisemitism said that regulators must take stronger action to ensure that "radical extremism in the name of religion will no longer be tolerated". [33]
Characterization as an antisemitic attack
Alan Rusbridger, writing in The Independent , opined: "The prime minister, Keir Starmer, was right to describe [al-Shamie's] actions as 'a terrorist attack to inflict fear. Attacking Jews because they are Jews.' It was, in other words, antisemitism". [59] In a statement addressed to the House of Commons, Home Secretary Mahmood called the attack an "act of antisemitic terrorism ... that was carried out by a terrorist pledging his allegiance to the warped ideology of Islamism." [60] In the House of Lords, the attack was labelled as an antisemitic act by the Deputy Home Secretary David Hanson and the Liberal Democrat politician Dee Doocey, among others. [61] GMP Chief Constable Stephen Watson called it an "antisemitic terrorist atrocity". [62]
Writing in Prospect magazine, the scholars Brendan McGeever, Ben Gidley, and David Feldman said that "hopefully we can all agree that what happened in Manchester was unambiguously antisemitic". [63] Jay Michaelson wrote in MSNBC.com, "This attack was 100% antisemitic ... synagogues are not military targets, and British Jews ... are not soldiers ... Nor, as far as I'm aware, did the terrorist ask his victims what they thought of Zionism or the Netanyahu government. He ran into the crowd with his car and stabbed people because they were Jews." [64] In The Independent, Howard Jacobson asked: "Can we agree now ... that an attack on a synagogue in Crumpsall, so far from Gaza, so innocent of colonial ambition, is as pure an expression of Jew-hatred as Jew-hatred gets?" [65]
