While the horrors of a terror attack were unfolding outside a Greater Manchester synagogue, the rabbi did “as much as he could” to continue the service on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, an attendee has said.
An attacker drove into Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue and stabbed several people in front of the building in Middleton Road, Crumpsall, Greater Manchester, on Thursday morning, killing two people and injuring four others.
Seven minutes after police were called to the scene at 9.31am, the terrorist had been shot dead.
Rob Kanter, a university lecturer, was inside the synagogue for a Yom Kippur service at the time of the attack.
He told the Guardian: “We continued to do part of the service because at the end of the day, because it’s awkward and it’s difficult, people have got a multitude of emotions going on, but we carried on, and did not the whole service, but we did what we could in the circumstances.
“At the end of the day, our rabbi’s role was to try and say, yes, this is a terrible tragedy, but we want to try where possible to remember today as Yom Kippur, and we did as much as we could as a group.”
Another man said prayers had started when the attack happened but Rabbi Daniel Walker, who was leading the service, remained calm as he and others led the congregation to safety.
He added: “They are true heroes.”
The two people who died were members of the Jewish community, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed.
Four other people are in hospital in a serious condition, the force said.
Officers were called to the scene at 9.31am by a member of the public who said he had seen a car being driven towards people, and one man had been stabbed.
Police arrived shortly afterwards and declared “Plato”, the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “marauding terror attack”, and a major incident at 9.37am.
Footage on social media appeared to show members of the public shouting to firearms officers that the suspect had a bomb strapped to him.
Police later confirmed the terrorist was wearing “a vest which had the appearance of an explosive device”.
Video posted on social media appeared to show officers pointing guns at someone lying on the ground outside the front of the synagogue.
The officers shout at onlookers to “get back” and “move on”.
The person on the ground starts to get up before there is the sound of a gunshot and they fall to the ground.
Another person was shown lying motionless on the ground outside the synagogue gates with blood near their head.
GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson praised the “immediate bravery” of security staff and worshippers who shut the attacker out of the building.
He told reporters: “There was a large number of worshippers attending the synagogue at the time of this attack, but thanks to the immediate bravery of security staff and the worshippers inside, as well as the fast response of the police, the attacker was prevented from gaining access.”
Chava Lewin, who described herself as a religious Jew and lives next door to the synagogue, told the PA News Agency she was outside at the time of the attack and thought she heard a firework.
“I spoke to someone who said she was driving and saw a car driving erratically and it crashed into the gates (of the synagogue),” she said.
“She thought maybe he had a heart attack. 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. He was in the courtyard.
“Someone barricaded the door. Everyone is in utter shock.”
Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that protects the Jewish community from antisemitism, said: “I praise the courage of the CST personnel, the commercial security guards and the synagogue congregants whose speedy reactions and whose use of the security doors of the synagogue have prevented even more casualties than those who were cruelly lost.”
The mayor of Greater Manchester condemned the incident as a “horrific antisemitic attack”.
Andy Burnham said: “We always will stand together here in Greater Manchester, and we will never let acts that are designed to cause hatred, division in our communities, violence, we will never let them succeed, and that’s our message tonight to everybody across Greater Manchester: Do not let them succeed.
“Respond by reaching out, by redoubling efforts to work together and stand together in these difficult times.”
