A north London stabbing that saw two Jewish men, one aged 76, injured, has been declared a terrorist attack, police said.
A man has been arrested after he was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and “attempting to stab Jewish members of the public”, Jewish security group Shomrim said on social media.
Police used a taser to stop the man, the group added.
Speaking outside Scotland Yard on Wednesday, head of counter terrorism policing Laurence Taylor confirmed that the stabbing has been formally declared to be terrorism.
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He said: “This has now formally been declared a terrorist incident. Our highly specialised teams of officers are working with the Metropolitan Police to progress this investigation quickly and establish exactly what has happened.
“We’re also working with our partners in the security services to ensure we have a full intelligence picture, and one of the lines of inquiry is whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London.”
[ Britain's Jewish communities on high alert following Manchester synagogue attackOpens in new window ]
Pictures from the scene posted online showed the emergency services standing over what appeared to be a victim lying on the street. Shomrim said that the two victims stabbed were being treated.
Over the last month, London police have arrested more than two dozen people as part of investigations into attacks on Jewish-linked premises, including the torching of ambulances, and attempted arson attacks on synagogues.
Police said they were investigating possible Iranian links to some of the incidents, and pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya has claimed some of the latest attacks on social media.
Officials have warned recently that Iran has sought to use criminal proxies to carry out hostile activity in the UK.
That warning comes at a time when anti-Semitic attacks have been rising in Britain, since the October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
The most severe anti-Semitic incident last year was the Manchester attack which killed two Jewish worshippers during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
British prime minister Keir Starmer told the House of Commons the incident was “deeply concerning”.
Later, speaking to broadcasters, he said: “The government is taking action in relation to security, cohesion, extremism, but of course it’s our responsibility to co-ordinate the immediate response here to this appalling attack, to ensure security is in place, to take other measures.
“I’m holding a meeting tomorrow with the criminal justice agencies to make sure that we have effective and swift justice in these cases.”
Other politicians, including Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch and courts minister and local MP Sarah Sackman, have gone to Golders Green.
Badenoch said the “full force of the law” is needed to ensure people feel safe.
Britain’s chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the British government needed more than just words to face down such “hatred”, while Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog said urgent action was needed after it became “dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew” in London. – PA/Reuters
