Car and knife attack at U.K. synagogue that killed 2 people declared a terrorist incident

LONDON — Police declared a terrorist incident after two people were killed and three others were seriously injured Thursday when a man rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed people at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester.

Worshippers were observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of counterterrorism policing, told reporters the attack had been declared a terrorist incident.

He said police fatally shot the suspect, who was later identified as Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent.

Two people were killed at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, and three others were in “serious condition,” he said.

On Friday, police identified the two people killed as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both from Crumpsall.

One sustained a stab wound, and another was hit by the car in the attack. A third man arrived at the hospital “with an injury that may have been sustained as officers stopped the attacker,” police said Thursday.

“Those who have been killed, injured, are at the forefront of our minds, as [are] their families, friends and all of those who love them,” Taylor said. He said that attack on the Jewish community “on Yom Kippur is devastating.”

Three people have been arrested; police did not identify them. They were described as two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which is responsible for dealing with all counterterrorism investigations throughout the U.K., has taken over the investigation from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which initially dealt with the incident.