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It was supposed to be a day a solemn reflection. Members of Manchester’s Jewish community, young and old, had gathered to mark Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
But a day of fasting and prayer was shattered when a knifeman ploughed into a worshipper outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall on Thursday morning, before getting out and stabbing bystanders.
Within just seven minutes of the first 999 call at 9.31am, the knifeman was shot dead by armed police who feared he would detonate a fake suicide belt strapped to his waist.
Officers have been praised for their swift response to the deadly attack, which claimed two lives and has been declared a terrorist incident.
Greater Manchester Police had declared Plato, the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “marauding terror attack”, and a major incident by 9.37am.
Security staff and worshippers have also been singled out for their bravery after their quick thinking stopped the knifeman from entering the synagogue, where terrified worshippers barricaded themselves inside as he stabbed at the window.
Chava Lewin, who lives next door to the synagogue, said: “I was outside and heard a banging sound, and I thought it might be a firework.
“My husband went outside and then ran back inside and said, ‘There’s been a terrorist attack’.
“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 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.”
Horrifying footage shared on social media appeared to show officers pointing guns at someone lying on the ground outside the front of the synagogue as they shouted at onlookers to “get back”, adding: “He has a bomb.”
The person on the ground starts to get up before there is the sound of a gunshot, and they fall to the ground.
Eyewitness Khurram Rafiq was driving past when he saw the knifeman plough into someone on the pavement outside the synagogue.
“Initially, I thought it was an accident and that the driver had lost control for whatever reason,” the tech firm manager, 35, told the Daily Mail.
“But he then got out and stabbed the man who was lying on the ground.
“This happened directly outside the synagogue. The knifeman walked through the front gates and stabbed at least two other men.”
He said the attacker, who had what appeared to be explosives strapped to his belt, targeted men wearing the Jewish skullcaps called kippahs.
“He was quiet, there was no shouting from what I could hear, nor any religious slogans or chants, he was very robotic in his actions, like he had a job to do and was just focused on doing it,” he added.
A delivery driver told BBC Radio Manchester the suspect was then “stabbing the window” and “trying to get into” the synagogue.
“As we looked over, the guy had a knife, and he was just stabbing the window trying to get in the school [synagogue],” he said.
“And then within seconds the police arrived. They gave him a couple of warnings. He didn’t listen, so they opened fire.
“He went down on the floor, and then he started getting back up, and then they shot him again.”
Paramedics arrived at the scene at 9.47am, and four more casualties were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Bomb disposal crews attended after 11am, but police later confirmed the device strapped to the attacker was not viable.
Two members of the Jewish community died in the attack.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said: “There were 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.
“All those inside were safely contained until police were able to confirm that it was safe to leave the premises. Yom Kippur is a day where we see our Jewish community attending their places of worship, places where they and their families should feel entirely safe from harm.”
