One victim of UK synagogue attack accidentally shot by police, officials say

One of the two Jewish men killed in a car and knife attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester appears to have been accidentally shot by a police officer as he tried to stop the attacker entering the building, law enforcement said on Friday.

Police said local residents Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died in Thursday's attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Three other people have been hospitalised and are reportedly in a serious condition.

Police shot and killed the suspect seven minutes after he rammed a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue and then attacked them with a knife in what the police force called an act of terrorism.

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

Greater Manchester Police said a pathologist has provisionally determined that Daulby had a gunshot wound.

Since the attacker did not have a gun, the injury may have been "a tragic and unforeseen consequence" of police actions, police chief Stephen Watson said.

He said one of the hospitalised victims had also been shot. Both were among worshippers who barricaded the door shut to stop the attacker entering, Watson said.

Daulby's family said in a statement that he "was a hero" whose "final act was one of profound courage."

Police have called the attack an act of terrorism but say they are still working to identify a motive.

Dozens of people gathered in pouring rain near the synagogue for a vigil on Friday, where Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was heckled by members of the crowd who accused the government of allowing antisemitism to spread.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, said the attack was the result 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.

Attacker was not known to counterterror police

Police identified the attacker 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.

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

A person familiar with the investigation said Al-Shamie was on bail over an alleged rape at the time of the attack. They requested anonymity to disclose information about the investigation.

Mahmood said "it's too early to say" whether the attacker acted alone or was part of a cell. Officers arrested two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s on suspicion of the preparation or commission of acts of terrorism in connection with the attack.

A statement on Facebook from the attacker's family condemned the "heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians."

"Our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families, and we pray for their strength and comfort," the statement said.

Leaders condemn the attack

Religious and political leaders condemned the attack and pledged to reassure Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000.

Police said extra officers would be on the streets of Manchester through the weekend.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who visited the scene of the attack on Friday morning with his wife Victoria, said "this was a dreadful attack, a terrorist attack to inflict fear. Attacking Jews because they are Jews."

"It's really important today that the whole country comes together, people of all faiths and no faith, stand in support and solidarity with our Jewish community," he said.

Anglican bishop Sarah Mullally, who was named as the next leader of the Church of England on Friday, said that "hatred and racism of any kind cannot be allowed to tear us apart."

Recorded antisemitic incidents in the UK have risen sharply since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 which sparked the current war in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, a charity that provides advice and protection for British Jews.

More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest six-month total reported since the record set over the same period a year earlier.