Greater Manchester Police said local residents Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died in the attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in the Manchester suburb of Crumpsall.

Three other people are hospitalised in a serious condition.

Police shot and killed a suspect seven minutes after he rammed a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue on Thursday morning (local time; Thursday night AEST) and then attacked them with a knife.

He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake.

The assault took place as people gathered at the Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, said the attack was the result of “an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred”.

“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” he wrote on social media.

The attacker was identified by police as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who entered the United Kingdom as a young child and became a citizen in 2006.

Police said the incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the attacker was not previously known to police or to Prevent, a national counterterror program that tries to identify people at risk of radicalisation.

Police said they are still probing the attacker’s motive.

Officers arrested three people on Thursday on suspicion of the preparation or commission of acts of terrorism – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the “vile” assailant who “attacked Jews because they are Jews”.

He promised the Jewish community that he would do “everything in my power to guarantee you the security that you deserve”.

“I promise you that over the coming days, you will see the other Britain, the Britain of compassion, of decency, of love,” Starmer said.

“I promise you that this Britain will 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.”