Heavy police presence at Stamford Hill Lag BaOmer celebrations | News
Police presence at Lag BaOmer celebrations in Stamford Hill in east London on Tuesday (May 5) has increased significantly, with police numbers nearly fivefold higher than in 2025, according to the Metropolitan Police.
It comes after the terror threat level for the UK was raised from “severe” to “serious” for the first time in more than four years following the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London.
The stabbings, declared a terrorist incident by the Met, were the latest incident of violence targeting the Jewish community in Britain.
Rabbi Levi Schapiro, the organizer of the event, described how many people in the community felt “very anxious” about the extra security measures deployed in the area to “keep the community safe in light of what has happened recently.”
On the morning of the Lag BaOmer celebrations, counter-terrorism police were investigating a suspected arson attack at a former synagogue on Nelson Street in Whitechapel.
