The morning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, began in quiet solemnity.
At Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Greater Manchester, hundreds of worshippers arrived on the crisp autumn morning.
Inside, the sanctuary was filled with prayers. Outside, a security guard maintained vigilance – a routine measure since October 7 due to heightened threats against the Jewish community.
The day initially unfolded peacefully, with worship, reflection, and quiet conversation. Few could have foreseen the impending terror heading their way.
Then at around 9.30am, came the first sign of the horror that was about to unfold.
The sound of screeching tyres tore down Middleton Road followed by a crash shattering the peace inside.
Those who were nearby initially dismissed the noise as a firework or a traffic incident.
However, what was about to ensue was seven harrowing minutes of terror, leaving two people dead, four gravely injured, and the rest of the Jewish community in shock.
It began when an inconspicuous black Kia hatchback came hurtling towards the crowds outside the synagogue and into the gates.
People were seen comforting one another near the synagogue in Manchester after the horror unfolded
People were seen gathering near to the scene if the terror attack with police ushering them away
At 9.31am, a quick-thinking passerby who witnessed the incident as it began to unfold reached for their phone to make the first 999 call.
The ordeal had only just begun – as they called for help, a man dressed in black, armed with a knife and what appeared to be a bomb belt, emerged from a wrecked car and targeted those outside.
A local resident driving past the synagogue recounted seeing the vehicle ‘rushing past and heading straight for the members of the public’.
She then saw a man ‘jump out’ and start running towards the people, she added, calling the bloody scene ‘traumatising’.
‘The man just sprinted out with a knife and began a bit of a rampage. It’s quite terrifying, to be honest,’ she added.
Wearing what appeared to be a suicide belt, the knifeman headed for the main entrance of the packed synagogue.
It is believed it was at this moment that he unleashed the worst of the violence stabbing at least four people including a security guard.
But as he reached the door he discovered it had been locked from the inside, leaving him furiously lunging his knife at the windows in a vain attempt to get to those sheltering inside.
But the entry had already been secured by quick-thinking Daniel Walker, the congregation’s rabbi, who had been leading the service and has since been hailed a hero.
Inside the worshippers remained ‘very calm and dignified’, said Rob Kanter, 45, who was among them.
The attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie, was caught on camera armed with a knife trying to get into the synagogue moments before he was shot by armed police
A forensic technician and police officers work at the scene after a terrorist drove a car into pedestrians and unleashed a knife attack outside a synagogue
A bomb disposal expert from the British Army’s 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment is seen investigating the device worn by the terrorist
A knifeman has been killed by police following the terror attack outside a synagogue in Manchester (pictured is a member of the Army’s bomb disposal team checking the attacker)
Witness Chava Lewin said: ‘Rabbi Walker was incredibly calm, he shut the doors to the synagogue to stop him getting inside.
‘He barricaded everyone inside. He is a hero, this could have been even worse.’
Outside, delivery driver Gareth Tonge had just stumbled into the chaos and saw two badly injured people lying prone on the ground.
‘We seen a guy bleeding out on the floor. He was just basically unconscious on the floor, presumed, obviously, dead,’ he said.
‘And then literally, there was (another) a guy in front of the car. He’s just lay on the floor. We couldn’t really see him.
‘And then, as we looked over, the guy had a knife, and he was just stabbing the window trying to get in…’
Meanwhile, firearms officers who had been mobilised at 9.34am were racing to the scene.
They arrived within six minutes of the initial 999 call and declared Plato, the national code-word used by emergency services for a ‘marauding terror attack’ at 9.37am.
At 9.38am, after calling out a number of warnings – they opened fire, neutralising the attacker.
Footage filmed by witnesses shows the moment the attacker fell to the ground just outside the entrance to the synagogue.
But the danger was not over yet – the man appeared to try to get up.
An armed police officer could be heard shouting at bystanders: ‘Get back … he has a bomb, go away.’
A Jewish man stands near a cordon after police blocked off White House avenue near the scene of the attack
Rabbi Daniel Walker stands among armed police officers as they talk with members of the Jewish community outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue
Armed police at a police cordon at the site of a vehicle and stabbing attack at a synagogue in Manchester
One worried man could be heard calling back to officers in one clip ‘shoot him … he’s got a bomb … he’s trying to press the button’.
A second volley of shots rang out and this time the suspect lay still on the ground.
But at the time officers were unable to get close enough to confirm his death due to the suspected suicide belt around his waist.
Nearby, an elderly worshipper on his way to the service lay still on the ground with his belongings scattered around him.
Four minutes later, at 9.41am, paramedics from the NorthWest Ambulance Service arrived and began treating the injured while officers evacuated local residents.
Approximately an hour after the attack began, bomb squad officers were spotted at the scene and a bomb disposal robot was deployed at 11am – they were able to confirm the device was a fake.
At 11.38am several armed police units were dispatched to a residential street – White House Avenue 0 less than half a mile away where two men were arrested in relation to the incident.
Above a distinctive blue and white helicopter – identified as the AS365N3 Dauphin used by the SAS Blue Thunder rapid reaction counter terror unit – could be seen flying overhead.
Following the attack, police officers were dispatched to all the city’s synagogues, but as the news began to spread, all Yom Kippur services were cancelled with worshippers warned not to attend.
Police confirmed just after 3.15pm that two Jewish people had been killed, while four others remained in hospital where they were being treated for a variety of serious injuries.
It has been confirmed that both of the dead were members of the Jewish community, while one of the people stabbed was working as security outside of the synagogue.
Later that afternoon Prime Minister Keir Starmer flew back to the UK early from a meeting of European leaders in Denmark in order to chair an emergency Cobra at 5pm.
After the hour long meeting he condemned a ‘terrorist attack that attacked Jews because they are Jews’ committed by ‘a vile individual’.
Yet even amid the horror, worshippers clung to their faith.
Rob Kanter, 45, who inside the synagogue, told how the rabbi tried to continue the interrupted morning service after they were all evacuated to the police station.
‘We continued to do part of the service, because at the end of the day, of course, it’s awkward and it’s difficult and people have got a multitude of emotions going on, but we carried on.
‘Your mind’s on many things, but our Rabbi’s role was to try and say ‘yes, this is a terrible tragedy, but at the end of the day, we want to try where possible…today is the Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement’ and we did as much as we could as a group.’
On Thursday night, police named Jihad Al-Shamie as the attacker. The 35-year-old is understood to have been granted British citizenship in 2006 when he was a teenager, aged around 16.
