Two members of the Jewish community have been stabbed in a suspected anti-Semitic attack in London, with the assailant now in custody.
The incident happened in the Golders Green area, where arsonists set fire to four ambulances operated by a Jewish volunteer organization just a little over a month ago.
Commenting on the latest attack on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X that the “antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling.”
London’s Metropolitan Police reported that the assailant had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, with his nationality and background being established at present.
According to the statement, first reports of the incident came in at around 11:16 a.m. Upon officers’ arrival, the suspect attempted to stab them, but was tasered before he could inflict any injuries on the police.
The attack left two men injured – one in his 70s and the other in his 30s.
Both were rushed to the hospital and are in stable condition, the MET stated.
“Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation and working with the Metropolitan Police to establish the full circumstances and any links to terrorism,” the authorities added.
Some reports have described the suspect as an “Islamic male” armed with a kitchen knife who hunted down his victims not far from a synagogue. One of the injured men was reportedly transported to hospital by helicopter.
Shomrim Jewish neighborhood watch group said that the suspect, who went on a rampage along Golders Green Road, had initially been subdued by its volunteers, before the police arrived at the scene.
Golders Green, which is home to a large Jewish community, has seen a series of apparently anti-Semitic attacks in recent months.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Wednesday that he was “horrified by yet another violent attack on Jews in broad daylight on the streets of London,” as quoted by his office. He added that “it has become dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew” in the British capital, and urged the UK government to “take urgent and immediate action before the next antisemitic attack occurs."
As recently as last month, several vehicles belonging to the local branch of Hatzola, a network of Orthodox Jewish volunteer emergency medical services, were targeted in an arson attack in the same Golders Green area. The MET said at the time that the case was being “treated as an anti-Semitic hate crime.”
Since the start of the Israeli military campaign against Hamas in 2023, which has been marked by significant Palestinian civilian casualties, there has been a rise in anti-Israeli sentiment in the UK and multiple other Western nations, as well as further afield. Thousands of people in London and other major European capitals have repeatedly protested against what some have described as a “genocide” of the Palestinians by West Jerusalem.
Concurrently, there has also been a spate of anti-Semitic attacks across Europe.