London – at least two people died when a man led a vehicle to a multitude of people and launched an stabbing attack near a synagogue in Manchester, a city in northern British, on Thursday, according to the police.
A third person, that the police said he was “a man who believed he was the offender,” he was shot by police officers and is believed to also died.
The death of the suspect “cannot be confirmed due to security problems that surround his person’s suspicious articles,” police said in a statement. “The pump elimination unit has been called and is now on the scene.”
At least three other people were injured and “remain in a serious condition,” said the police.
The incident occurred outside the Synagogue of the Heaton Park’s Hebrew congregation in a suburb of the north of the city on Thursday morning, police said.
Emergency staff works in a cordon in Middleton Road after an incident outside a synagogue in North Manchester, Great Britain, on October 2, 2025.
Phil noble/Reuters
Police reported that “injuries caused by vehicle and stab wounds.” A public member told the officers that they responded “that he had witnessed a car led to the public members,” along with a stabbed man, police said.
The firearms officers responded to the call, police said.
Police said they had declared an important incident, along with a designation of “Plato”, an abbreviation of the police that means that the incident was being treated as a possible Meroderist terrorist attack.
Emergency services at the scene of an incident of stabbing in the synagogue of the Heaton Park Congregation, in Crumpall, Manchester, England, Thursday, October 2, 2025.
Peter Byrne/AP
Thursday is Yom Kippur, which is considered the most sacred day of the year in Judaism.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, told X that he was “horrified by the attack in a synagogue in Crumpall.”
“The fact that this took place in Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar, makes it even more horrible,” added the prime minister.
A police officer is on a cordon near the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Crumpall, North Manchester, on October 2, 2025, after reports of a stabbing.
Paul Currie/AFP through Getty Images
“My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected, and my thanks to emergency services and all the first to respond,” Starmer wrote.
Starmer was in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a summit with European leaders when the incident occurred.
Speaking to journalists, the prime minister said he would return to the United Kingdom and that he would preside over a emergency “cobra” meeting, a meeting of senior officials to discuss and respond to national emergencies.
Starmer also said that additional police are being deployed in synagogues throughout the country. “We will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe,” he added.
The synagogue website where the incident occurred listed the events related to Yom Kippur for Wednesday and Thursday night.
Armed police officers talk to community members near the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Crumpall, North Manchester, on October 2, 2025.
Paul Currie/AFP through Getty Images
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, told X that he was “horrified by the violent attack in a synagogue in Manchester.”
Khan said that he had spoken with his counterpart in Manchester and the Secretary of the Interior, Shabana Mahmood, “and would like to assure the Londoners that the Met Police are intensifying patrols in communities and Jewish synagogues in all London.”
King Carlos III and his wife, Queen Camilla, said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and saddened upon learning of the horrible attack in Manchester, especially on such an important day for the Jewish community.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this terrible incident and we greatly appreciate the rapid actions of emergency services,” said the statement.
Victoria Beaule and Zoe Magee of ABC News contributed to this report.
