U.K. police say deadly rampage at Manchester synagogue was terrorist attack

2 deadened, 3 suffer in Manchester tabernacle assail, suspect shot by police

British police have declared that a deadly rampage at a synagogue that killed two people on the holiest day of the Jewish year was a terrorist attack.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Laurence Taylor in Manchester said the assailant was killed by officers and two other suspects were arrested. He provided no further information on the arrests.

Authorities said the suspect rammed his car into pedestrians and began stabbing people. Three other people were seriously wounded.

It took police some time to confirm he was dead because of concerns he had an explosive on him.

Greater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall shortly after 9:30 a.m. Local time by a member of the public. The caller said he had witnessed a car being driven toward members of the public and that one man had been stabbed, according to police.

Police said that minutes later shots were fired by officers.

The Greater Manchester Police confirmed the suspect was dead after earlier summoning its bomb disposal unit to the scene as a precaution.

Police said the injured are in serious condition without elaborating. Worshippers inside the synagogue were not among the injured.

"We are grateful to the member of the public whose quick response to what they witnessed allowed our swift action, and as a result the offender was prevented from entering the synagogue," a police spokesperson said in a social media post.

Chava Lewin, who lives next to the synagogue, said she heard a bang and thought it might be a firework until her husband ran inside their house and said there had been an attack.

A witness told her that she saw a car driving erratically crash into the gates of the house of worship.

"She thought maybe he had a heart attack," Lewin 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."

Video on social media showed police with guns pointed at a person lying on the ground beneath a blue Star of David on the brick wall of the synagogue.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the U.K.

Starmer, in Copenhagen for a summit, in a social media post thanked first responders and said his thoughts were with the victims and their loved ones.

"I'm appalled by the attack at a synagogue in Crumpsall," said Starmer. "The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific."

Starmer was flying back from the summit to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee, COBRA.

"This is every rabbi's or every Jewish person's worst nightmare," said Rabbi Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue and head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain. "Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it's also a time of mass gathering, and the time when the Jewish community, however religious or irreligious, gathers together."

King Charles said he and Queen Camilla were "deeply shocked and saddened″ to learn of the attack "on such a significant day for the Jewish community.″

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this appalling incident and we greatly appreciate the swift actions of the emergency services,'′ Charles said on his social media feed.

Manchester was the site of Britain's deadliest attack in recent years, the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people.

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