Six minutes of terror: how Manchester synagogue attack unfolded | Manchester

Those who worshiped came early for a special morning service in Heaton Park Shul in North Manchester. Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar, was praying in his long white robes. He was painted with blood until 9.31 in the morning.

When people went to the synagogue, they saw that a small black car was driven irregularly before hitting the doors. At first, some thought that the driver had a heart attack. But in seconds, he jumped out of the car, they were all wearing black, and he started stabbing the nearby ones.

A witness, “a ramp,” he said. An old man was still and bleeding at the entrance to Shul. Another sacrifice was wrinkled under the car hood. In the courtyard, he seemed to be trying to get into the aggressive synagogue, and as those who worshiped the doors, he seemed to stab and cut the doors into the windows.

Within six minutes, the knife was lying tendency after being shot by armed officers. As they reached out on the ground, they could see three white objects tied to their waist. “There is a bomb!” While the people in the synagogue looked through the windows above, a scared man shouted. “Shoot it!”

The attacker then tried to sit. “Shoot it!” A witness shouted again. One of the officers made a final, a deadly shot.

In only six minutes, the attacker brought terror to the Jewish community on his most sacred days. Two people were killed and four were in a serious condition in the hospital. Police said that the suspect was kept away from the building, thanks to the courage of worship.

Until 9.37 in the morning, the Great Manchester police declared a big incident and triggered the Plato Operation, a plundering terrorist attack plan. When the Wales and other forces were called, the army bomb destruction units competed at the scene.

When 75 -year -old Fran Barrie heard the sound of chaos, he was in the synagogue -looking apartment: ım I heard this big explosion in about half and then everything happened. There was about four loud sounds. The police could shoot in the man, but about 15 minutes later, armed police, fire engines, everything.

While medical officers ran to help the victims, the police locked the synagogue. Nobody was allowed to leave. As more armed officers reached a speed, a large police cord was placed. Military personnel, two “Blue Thunder” helicopters used by the Special Forces, Eurocopter AS365 Dawuphins came to those who appeared.

On a day when many Jewish phones closed, the news was slowly filtered at first. When a woman heard what happened, she only competed in the Road of Edilom dressed in evening dresses. Her husband was inside. He didn’t answer the phone. “I’m sick,” he said. “I just got out of my pajamas”. His son was clearly shaken, “Terrible. We’re smooth.” He said.

Barrie, whose husband was Jewish, knocked on the door. The police officer told all the residents in the small apartments block to move away from the windows behind the building. He didn’t say why. At 11.15, another police officer returned and said that they were all released immediately. Those who were held in the synagogue were removed. “We crossed the bomb team and an armed robot.

Over the next two hours, bomb destruction experts carried out three -controlled explosion, including one of the suspect’s vehicle. Each explosion brought silence to people at both ends of the police cord. So far, security services were sure that this was a terrorist attack.

Since nearby hospitals were locked, police cars were sent to the synagogues in Manchester.

On Middleton Road, about 200 meters from the synagogue, they were trying to intimidate some of those in Heaton Park Shul. Volunteers were very upset to talk while distributing blue blankets and water bottles. The kids were among those who were relaxed.

39 -year -old Josh Aronson was planning to observe when he heard that he played Yom Kippur at 9.37 at 9.37 at the Synagogue. He recognized the sound immediately.

As a Manchester reporter for the Israeli newspaper Maariv, he worked on worldwide clashes. “I have been in the countries of the war region and I know the sound of the shots and I said: ‘Oh my God-I know that there is the voice of these shots’. Then I heard too much and I thought: Oh my God, something happens.”

Aronson said that the police initially refused to allow them to leave the building, but then told him to go and then pushed the cord back before he made a controlled explosion. Later, he saw the rabbi Walker: “I saw that there was blood in the long white bathrobe.”

“Just shocking,” he said. “I said before, I’m a journalist but I have no word [right now]. I took over such attacks and I never thought it would be in my own neighborhood. “

Speaking, the armed police ran to a dead end-sac about 500 meters from the synagogue. The officers besieged a house and removed at least one man. The police then confirmed that two men were arrested.

Heaton Park Shul in Crumpsall is one of the largest and most various Jewish communities in the UK, which dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. It also limits one of the largest Muslim population of the city in the nearby Cheetham Hill.

Four months ago, the Jewish community of the region was targeted when the anti -Semitic graffiti, including the “Nazi Jews SCUM ,, was erupted out of the synagogues, coastal restaurants and bus stops. Days ago, pro -Palestinian activists claimed that it was used as a base for an Israeli weapon manufacturer and claimed the responsibility of maintaining red paint in another building.

According to Community Security Trust, who followed the anti -Jewish hatred, events, about two miles away from the synagogue attacked on Thursday, were recorded in Greater Manchester in the first half of this year.

The police called the attacker on Thursday night, a 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian origin. The Great Manchester police announced that he had been arrested on the other three people – two men in their 30s and a woman in their 60s – “suspicion of commission, the preparation and encouragement of terrorist acts”.

Many in the community associates stabbing the increase in the increase of the anti -Semitic events in Manchester and England after the Gaza conflict.

Wearing the Manchester United shirt, Aonson said that the attack would be a “calling for wake” for the Jewish people due to anti -Semitism and the conflict in Gaza. “Currently, there is a lot of hatred between Jews and non -Jews. There must be dialogue. Not everything in Israel does not include Jewish faith.”

Apart from the police cord, Barrie fought to understand what happened to the community in all days. “You don’t do this in a civilized society,” he said. “He doesn’t help any case. I feel sad.”

His neighbor, Joyce Goldstone, 75, “I am shaking. We had no hostility here. When there were uprisings all over the police, there was no such thing here. I was born Catholic and my husband Jewish – We all have the same ten orders, why can’t we all agree?”