Members of the Jewish community comfort each other near to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue, in Crumpsall, Manchester, England, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025 after Police reported that two people were killed and three others were seriously injured in a synagogue attack in northern England. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously hurting at least three in what police called a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Officers shot and killed the suspect at the synagogue in Manchester, police said, though authorities took some time to confirm he was dead because he was wearing a vest that made it appear as if he had explosives. Police later said he did not have a bomb.

The Metropolitan Police force in London, which leads the nation’s counter-terrorism policing operations, declared the rampage a terrorist attack.

Authorities said the man believed responsible was a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent named Jihad Al-Shamie, who entered the U.K. as a young child and became a citizen in 2006. An initial check of records showed he was not part of a U.K. counterterror program that tries to identify people at risk for being radicalized.

Police also said three people were arrested on suspicion of acts of terrorism. They are two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s.

Authorities were working to formally identify the dead and determine the motive for the attack.

At least three people were hospitalized in serious condition, officials said. One person sustained a stab wound while a second was struck by the car involved in the attack. A third person arrived at a hospital with an injury that may have been sustained as officers stopped the attacker. Earlier, police said a fourth individual had also been hurt.

The assault took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue in an outer neighborhood of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Police said the two people killed were Jewish.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the “vile” assailant who “attacked Jews because they are Jews.” He promised the Jewish community that he would do “everything in my power to guarantee you the security that you deserve, starting with a more visible police presence.”

“I promise you that over the coming days, you will see the other Britain, the Britain of compassion, of decency, of love,” Starmer said. “I promise you that this Britain will come together to wrap our arms around your community and show you that Britain is a place where you and your family are safe, secure and belong.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel grieved with the Jewish community in the U.K.

“Our hearts are with the families of the murdered, and we pray for the swift recovery of the wounded,” he said. “As I warned at the UN: Weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism. Only strength and unity can defeat it.”

Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have hit record levels following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.

More than 1,500 cases were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest six-month total reported since the record set over the same period a year earlier.

“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.”