The double stabbing of Jewish men in London was an act of terrorism, police said
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Two Jewish men were stabbed and injured on a London street on Wednesday, in what police called an act of terrorism. Police have arrested a 45-year-old man for attempted murder in the latest attack in the city.
The Metropolitan Police said the attack in the Golders Green area left two men, aged 34 and 76, in hospital with stab wounds.
Anti-terrorist police are investigating whether the stabbing is linked to the burning of synagogues and other Jewish sites in the British capital.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among politicians to condemn the stabbing, saying: “An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on Britain,” and called a meeting of the government’s emergency committee to discuss a response.
Metropolitan Police Chief Mark Rowley said it was “another act of violence against our Jewish communities.”
But some British Jews expressed anger at the authorities’ failure to keep them safe. Rowley faced cries of “disappointment” and “resignation” from onlookers when he made a statement to the media at the time of the stabbing.
The Shomrim security organization said the suspect “was seen running on Golders Green Road armed with a knife and trying to stab the Jews of the community.” It said the suspect was arrested by members of Shomrim and arrested by the police who used a gun on him.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man on the side of a bus stop wearing a kippah, or traditional skullcap, before a passerby stabbed him with a knife.
The police said the suspect tried to stab the police again, but was not injured. Rowley said the suspect, whose name has not been released, “had a history of severe violence and mental health issues.”
Arson attacks in recent weeks have targeted Jewish sites in London, including a charity ambulance in Golders Green and a synagogue a few miles away.
“It’s happening in Israel, but it’s happening alone, it’s really shocking,” said Golders Green resident Moishe Grunfeld. “I have children, I have grandchildren.”
Antisemitism has increased since October 2023
Britain’s Jewish community has long been established but is small as a percentage of the population, around 300,000. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of the most historic areas, home to kosher restaurants, Jewish schools and a dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
“There should be absolutely no place for hate in society,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
No one was injured in the arson incidents. Several people, ranging in age from teenagers to their 40s, have been arrested and charged.
Counterterror police are investigating whether the arson attack was the work of Iranian lawyers. The UK has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to attack European soil targeting opposition media and the Jewish community. Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 says more than 20 potentially dangerous programs sponsored by Iran have been disrupted in the year ending in October.
British official Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said that Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation and that words of criticism are no longer enough.
“This must be a time that requires all institutions, society, leaders and all respectable people in our country to take drastic measures. This is the hatred that we must face,” he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the world must “wake up” to the rising tide of anti-Semitic hatred.
“In one of the largest cities of the West, it has become dangerous to walk openly on the streets as a Jew,” Herzog wrote in X. “This is an unacceptable situation.”
The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported across the UK has risen since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died when he was attacked after being shot by the police.
