Police are treating the stabbing of two men in Golders Green, north London, as terrorism, with the suspect described as having been hunting for anyone “visibly Jewish” to attack.
The stabbings, which happened just after 11am on Wednesday, follow a series of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London since March, including two previous incidents in Golders Green.
The victims, aged 76 and 34, are said to be in a stable condition in hospital. A 45-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder after being shot with a stun gun to subdue him.
The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, named the victims as Nachman Moshe ben Chaya Sarah and Moshe Ben Baila, and used a social media post to urge people to pray for them.
British counter-terrorism officials are studying a claim of responsibility for the stabbings by a group linked to Iran known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI). The group has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks across Europe since March, mainly targeting Jewish communities.
The investigation is at an early stage, with the suspect’s electronic devices still being accessed and examined. He has a history of mental health issues, drug use and convictions for violence.
Counter-terrorism officials are trying to determine which ideology may have triggered the violent attack. Both an Iran-linked group and Islamic State have supported violence against Jews.
Politicians in Israel and the opposition in the UK accused the Labour government of not doing enough to protect Jewish communities.
The attack began shortly after 11am, when the suspect was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and stabbing his first victim at 11.15am.
The suspect attacked his second victim 10 minutes later, and video footage showed him pursuing other people who got away.
A video showed the suspect walking almost casually and then lunging towards the 76-year-old man standing at a bus stop wearing a kippah, or men’s Jewish head covering. The suspect repeatedly swings the knife in his right hand at the upper body of the man while holding him with his left hand. The man being attacked is forced backwards and passersby rush to try to help him.
Another video shows the arrest, with the suspect walking down a sidestreet, clutching the knife, towards two Met officers and a volunteer for the Jewish security group Shomrim. An officer uses Pava spray to try to subdue him before the suspect is shot with a Taser.
The suspect falls to the ground and officers kick him in the head shouting repeatedly “drop the knife”, as they try to get the suspect’s hands behind his back to handcuff him. At least one member of the public appears to help the two officers, at one point sitting on top of the suspect.
The Met said the suspect also tried to stab officers detaining him but they were unhurt. The suspect is understood to have a previous conviction for attacking police officers.
Counter-terrorism police investigating the stabbing later on Wednesday said they were searching an address in south-east London after it was reported the suspect had been involved in a prior “altercation” with another person on the same day.
The Met said they were were called at about 8.50am on April 29 to a incident at an address in Great Dover Street, Southwark.
Police said: “It is believed that the suspect in this incident is the same individual arrested in Golders Green.
“The suspect who is reported to have been armed with a knife, is believed to have had an altercation with the occupant before leaving.
“The occupant received minor injuries and police arrived within around six minutes of being called. Officers carried out searches in the local area for the suspect, but he was not located.
“Officers also carried out inquiries to locate the man at an address connected to the suspect, but again, he was not located.”
The attacks in Golders Green happened close to a memorial wall where an attempted arson attack took place on Monday, and close to where four Jewish community ambulances were destroyed by fire in March, in an attack suspected to have been carried out by criminal proxies hired by Iran.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: “The antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.”
Israel’s foreign ministry, previously critical of the UK government for its position on the war in Gaza, said: “Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statements are no substitute for confronting the roots of antisemitism festering across the United Kingdom.
“British Jews should not need security patrols and emergency volunteers to live openly as Jews.”
Starmer, who chaired a meeting of the government’s Cobra crisis committee after the attack, promised action: “I’m holding a meeting tomorrow with the criminal justice agencies to make sure that we have effective and swift justice in these cases.
“But we do have to recognise the levels of anxiety and concern there are, that I know about in terms of the Jewish community feeling very much exposed and vulnerable, feeling they’ve got to hide their identity, sometimes in the health service, sometimes at school, on the streets where they live.
“It’s our job to make sure that they feel safe and secure. It’s our job to make sure that we absolutely deal with the roots of antisemitism and extremism. That is what we will do.”
The Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, in a statement near the scene of the attacks, denounced antisemitism and said more needed to be done to combat it, but a small group nearby barracked him, chanting “shame on you” and calling on him to resign as the commissioner of Britain’s largest force.
Rowley struggled to be heard amid the chants. The commissioner said: “Jewish communities are understandably angry. There have been too many attacks.”
A terrorist attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester last year killed two people and the attacker was shot dead by police. In that case the attacker claimed he carried out the atrocity for Islamic State.
Islamic State and al-Qaida propaganda has recently called for attacks on Jewish people and targets. A series of attacks since March, first in mainland Europe and then in London against Jewish targets, are suspected of being carried out by criminal proxies at the behest of Iran.
Ben Grossnass, of the Shomrim Northwest Community Patrol, said: “We got a call to our hotline around 11.20 this morning, with a lot of panic in their voice, explaining there’s a man running around with a knife on Golders Green Road and Highfield Avenue, stabbing people.”
Grosnass said they dispatched volunteers to the scene and had individuals follow the attacker, managing to apprehend him with the police.
He said the attacker had chased individuals coming out of the synagogue: “He was trying to attack anyone visibly Jewish.”
“There was someone else standing at a bus stop on Golders Green Road, outside the fruit store Normans, and he was pushed down to the ground, and the fellow jumped on top of him, stabbed him repeatedly.”
Steven Bak, also of Shomrim Northwest Community Patrol, said his organisation was on the scene within a minute. “[The attacks have] increased a lot in the past couple of years, but in the past few months our volunteers are really stretched. We’re receiving calls all day, every day … We just really need further assistance from government.”
There has been a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks in the UK since the war in Gaza.
The Community Security Trust, which works to keep Jewish communities safe from attack, said: “This series of violent attacks on the Jewish community is unprecedented and completely unacceptable.
“It is an affront to our country and to our British way of life, and every effort must be made, by all parts of society, to combat it.”
Mirvis said: “Words of condemnation are no longer sufficient. This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country. This is a hatred that we must face down together.”
A Kensington palace spokesperson said the victims of today’s stabbings in Golders Green are in the Prince and Princess of Wales’ thoughts and they are “following the situation closely”.
