British police said on Friday they accidentally shot a victim who died in the attack on a synagogue in Manchester, as well as one of the survivors, as they attempted to stop an attacker who appeared to be wearing an explosive belt.
In Thursday’s attack two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed after a British man of Syrian descent drove a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing people outside Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The attacker, shot dead by officers at the scene, was not carrying a firearm, said Greater Manchester Police chief constable Steve Watson, though one of those killed suffered a gunshot wound.
“It follows therefore this injury may have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end”, Watson said in a statement.
Watson said another worshipper is believed to have suffered a non life-threatening gunshot wound, and that it is thought both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers tried to prevent the attacker from gaining entry.
The police complaints watchdog said it was carrying out an investigation into what happened.
Police have named the attacker as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, and said they could find no records to show he had been referred to the government’s anti-radicalisation programme.
In a statement on Facebook, Shamie’s family said they were in “profound shock” and wanted to distance themselves from what they called his “heinous act”.
The British government vowed to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism as the Jewish community reeled from the attack.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the site of the attack and spoke with police and ambulance workers, praising “the degree of professionalism and speed” they showed in their response.
When Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy spoke at a vigil outside the synagogue on Friday he was heckled by people who said “Jews don’t want to live here anymore” and urged him to stop the pro-Palestinian marches that have taken place in British cities regularly since the start of the Gaza war.
