Manchester synagogue horror deepens as UK officials identify the Yom Kippur terror suspect who killed two.NN
The knife-wielding terrorist accused of killing two people outside a UK synagogue on Thursday has been identified as a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, officials announced.
Jihad Al-Shamie allegedly carried out the rampage at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, which was celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
“We are now able to confirm that, although formal identification is yet to take place, we believe the person responsible for today’s attacks is 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie,” police said in an updated statement, according to The Sun.
Al-Shamie was not previously known to anti-terrorism or police officials, that update revealed.
The madman plowed his vehicle into pedestrians and stabbed a security guard outside the temple just after 9:30 a.m. before being shot dead by British cops as he was stabbing a window in an attempt to get inside, police said.
“The second he got out of the car, he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue,” one eyewitness told The Sun.
Other witnesses said Al-Shamie appeared to be wearing a bomb-loaded belt, but no explosions occurred during the spree.
A delivery driver who watched as cops confronted the terrorist recounted the tense scene which ended with gunfire.
“The guy had a knife, and he was just stabbing the window trying to get in the [synagogue],” the man identified as Gareth Tonge told BBC.
“Within seconds, the police arrived, they gave him a couple of warnings, he didn’t listen so they opened fire,” he said, adding, “[Al-Shamie] started getting back up and they shot him again.”
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At least three other people were arrested in a law enforcement sweep after the attack, according to the UK’s head of counter-terrorism policing Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor.
Those suspects have been identified as two men in their 30s and one woman in her 60s, The Sun reported. They are each being held on suspicion of commission, preparation, and instigation of acts of terrorism.
Both victims of the mad terror attack were Jewish, officials said, with three others currently in serious condition at local hospitals.
One of the victims sustained a stab wound while the other was struck by the car as it plowed towards the crowded synagogue, The Sun reported.
The stabbing victim is believed to be a security guard who was working at the temple, BBC reported.
A third injury was sustained by a man heroically barring the door of the synagogue, who was injured by police action, either by a bullet or shrapnel, The Times of London reported.
That man was one of several worshippers and security staff who acted with “immediate bravery” and prevent the murderous rampage from proceeding inside the house of worship, the Greater Manchester police stated, according to that report.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack, which he framed as a product of rising tide of “hatred” in Britain.
“This was a vile terrorist attack that attacked Jews because they are Jews,” Starmer wrote on X. “Antisemitism is a hatred that is rising, once again. Britain must defeat it, once again.”
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried the “barbaric attack.”
“Israel grieves with the Jewish community in the UK after the barbaric attack in Manchester,” the leader of the Jewish state wrote on X.
“As I warned the UN: weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism. Only strength and unity can defeat it,” Netanyahu concluded.
