Police tents cover parts of the scene on the main road outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, following an attack at the synagogue yesterday. Photo / Paul Currie, AFP
Police tents cover parts of the scene on the main road outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, following an attack at the synagogue yesterday. Photo / Paul Currie, AFP
UK police have said they shot two victims, including one who died, as officers responded to an attack on worshippers at a Manchester synagogue marking a Jewish holiday.
The admission came as Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was booed at a vigil for the victims, with emotions running high aday after the atrocity.
At the gathering to remember the two victims – named by police as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66 – people could be heard chanting “shame on you” as Lammy was introduced.
“This was a dreadful attack, a terrorist attack to inflict fear, attacking Jews because they are Jews,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a group of emergency responders in the city in northwest England.
Flowers and a tribute featuring a bee, and a Star of David, are pictured near Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester. Photo / Paul Currie, AFP
Police shot dead the attacker, named as Jihad al-Shamie, a UK citizen of Syrian descent who was on bail for an alleged rape, within minutes of responding to calls that a car had ploughed into people and a security guard had been stabbed.
On Friday (local time), the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Stephen Watson, said an interior ministry pathologist had “provisionally determined that one of the deceased victims would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury”.
Noting the attacker was not believed to have had a gun, and that “the only shots fired were from... authorised firearms officers”, Watson said the injury “may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence” of officers responding to the attack.
He added that the condition of the victim who was wounded by gunshot was not life-threatening.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog said it is investigating “a fatal police shooting” to establish what had happened.
Safety priority
Watson said both gunshot victims “were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers acted bravely to prevent the attacker from gaining entry”.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria react as they visit the scene outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue. Photo / Paul Currie, AFP
Shamie, 35, had worn a vest holding an apparent explosive device, but it was not functional, police said.
The force have arrested three people – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s – on suspicion of terrorism-linked offences.
The targeted synagogue’s leaders said Friday “it is hard to find the words to convey the depth of our community’s grief”.
Their statement added “the greatest tribute” to the victims “would be for communities right across the country to come together in peace and solidarity, to challenge the evil of antisemitism”.
Daulby’s family described him as a “hero” whose courage “prevented the attacker from gaining access to the premises”.
Manchester United football club was to hold a minute’s silence in honour of the victims at a game on Saturday.
That conflict has inflamed passions in Britain, with frequent pro-Palestinian rallies in cities criticised by some for stoking antisemitism and fear in Jewish communities.
‘Jew hatred’
A “global movement for Gaza UK” protest went ahead in London late Thursday, with police making 40 arrests.
London’s Metropolitan Police requested organisers delay another planned demonstration backing the banned Palestine Action group on Saturday, but have so far been rebuffed.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said Thursday’s rallies were “dishonourable” and criticised the weekend plans.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday echoed criticism of the UK Government, saying on LBC radio it appeared to tolerate “this very brutal, aggressive and violent behaviour on the streets”.
