London – Two Jewish men — one in his 70s and the other in his 30s — were stabbed and seriously wounded on Wednesday in the heavily Jewish London neighbourhood of Golders Green in an antisemitic terror attack, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting British Jews. Both men were treated at the scene and taken to the hospital. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police described the victims’ condition as stable. The BBC earlier said they were seriously wounded.
The assailant, a 45-year-old man who also tried to stab police officers in the attack, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. “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 statement said. The head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, later said the attack had formally been declared a terrorist incident, and that investigators were looking into “whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London.”
The newly formed terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) claimed one of its “lone wolves” committed the attack, the SITE Intelligence Group reported. The group is believed to have links to Iran and has claimed credit for some of the recent antisemitic incidents in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
“Zionists were targeted by our lone wolves in the Golders Green area of London,” the group, whose name means The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand, said in a claim posted online, according to SITE. The local Shomrim emergency response organization, which serves Jewish areas, made the first public report of the incident, saying it had responded immediately and detained the suspect. Shortly thereafter, it said, police arrived and assisted in subduing him. The victims were initially treated by the Hatzola ambulance service, Shomrim said. The Jewish community medics also treated the suspect, according to reports.
The attack took place some 300 yards away from the site of an arson attack earlier this month targeting four Hatzola ambulances parked outside a synagogue.
The Community Security Trust, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on hate crimes and safety issues, thanked Shomrim, as well as Hatzola and the Metropolitan Police, for their “swift response.”
A witness told the BBC that one of the victims was attacked outside a shop, while the second was stabbed on a side road outside a synagogue.
