UK on 'high alert' following synagogue terror attack

FE Team | Published: October 03, 2025 23:52:29

MANCHESTER, Oct 03 (AFP): Britain was on heightened alert Friday to ensure the Jewish community's safety following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on a Jewish holiday that killed two people and seriously injured three.
Police shot dead the attacker in Thursday's car ramming and stabbing spree in the northwest English city, later identifying him as a UK citizen of Syrian origin, and within hours arrested three others.
UK authorities swiftly declared it a "terrorist incident", staged as Jewish communities around the world marked Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday in the Jewish calendar.
Security was immediately stepped up at synagogues nationwide, with interior minister Shabana Mahmood confirming Friday "we are absolutely on high alert".
"That is why there has been an increase in police resources, not just here in Manchester, but across the country," she told Sky News.
"Our priority is making sure that our citizens here at home are safe and can go about their business and lead lives that flourish within the Jewish community and beyond."
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) arrested three people Thursday-two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s-on suspicion of "commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism".
Three people remain in serious condition in hospital, police said.
The force on Friday named the two Jewish people killed in the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.
Both lived in the Crumpsall neighbourhood, where the synagogue sat among residential streets in the heart of one of Britain's biggest Jewish communities.
Emergency services flooded the area Thursday morning following calls a car had ploughed into people outside the synagogue and that a security guard had been attacked with a knife.