‘Shut the doors!’: Manchester survivors describe chaos of deadly Yom Kippur terror attack

Worshippers at Heaton Park Synagogue in north Manchester gathered early on Thursday morning for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, for what was meant to be a day of solemn reflection and prayer. Instead, the synagogue was targeted in a deadly terror attack that lasted minutes but left a deep scar on one of Britain’s largest Jewish communities.

At 9:31 a.m., the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Daniel Walker, was leading the morning service, clothed in white robes. Minutes later, they were bloodstained. Outside, chaos erupted when a small black car crashed into the synagogue gates. Some initially believed the driver might be having a medical emergency, but the truth revealed itself quickly and violently.

“It was a rampage,” one witness told the UK’s The Guardian.

The attacker, later identified by police as 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent, emerged from the vehicle dressed in black and began stabbing people near the entrance. Inside the synagogue, the congregants heard the commotion and immediately acted to protect each other.

“Shut the doors!” they cried, according to witness testimony recounted to the New York Times.

Ivan Telzer, who was among those inside, recalled hearing pounding on the other side of the synagogue doors as Shamie tried to force his way in. Congregants and the rabbi used their bodies to barricade the entrance.

The terrorist was still trying to gain entry when armed police arrived within minutes and opened fire. In the chaos, two worshippers were struck by police bullets. One was wounded, and the other, Adrian Daulby, died at the scene.

“Shoot him!” someone shouted, according to the reports. “He’s got a bomb!”

From inside the synagogue, frightened worshippers stared down at the attacker, who was lying prone with what appeared to be explosives strapped to his waist. When he tried to sit up, the cry came again: “Shoot him!”

Police then fired a final, fatal shot.

The attack was over in less than seven minutes. Two men—Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were dead. Four others were seriously injured.

‘Oh my god – I know that’s the sound of shots’

Cravitz “did not have a single bad bone in his body,” congregant Avrom Baker told the Times, “He did not deserve to get killed.”

Emergency services declared a major incident and launched Operation Plato, the protocol for responding to active terror attacks. Bomb disposal teams conducted controlled explosions on the suspect’s car and other suspicious items. Police helicopters circled overhead, and officers in bright yellow vests were stationed outside Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centers across Manchester.

On the street outside the synagogue, dazed congregants and residents gathered, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Volunteers handed out blankets and bottles of water. Children were among those being comforted. Some, like Josh Aronson, a journalist who lives nearby, recognized the gunfire immediately.

“I’ve been in war-zone countries and know the sound of shots,” he told the Guardian. “I said: ‘Oh my god – I know that’s the sound of shots.’ Then I heard too many sirens and I thought: Oh my god, something’s happening.”

Aronson said he later spotted the rabbi outside. “I saw there was blood on the long white robe.”

Though shaken, he told the outlet that he views the attack as part of a larger pattern of rising hate: “There’s so much hatred between Jews and non-Jews at the moment. There must be dialogue. Not everything going on in Israel has to involve the Jewish faith.”

“It was shocking,” survivor Anne Goldstone, 67, told the Times. “But… it was kind of a bit of an inevitability. You know… we were always worried.”

Nati Azar, who lives near the synagogue, explained to the newspaper that the Gaza war had heightened fears. “Everyone is scared and worried,” he said. “People don’t like us because of the Middle East war. We don’t know when the next attack is going to come.”

“I’m scared to go to the synagogue,” Telzer told the US outlet. “I’m just scared.”

As investigators continue to piece together the attack, police have arrested three others in connection with the incident, including two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s, all held on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses.

Outside the cordoned-off streets of Crumpsall, residents were left stunned by the brutality of the day.

“You don’t do this in a civilized society,” Fran Barrie, a 75-year-old Crumpsall local, told the Guardian. “It’s not helping any case. I’m feeling sad.”

“I’m shaken up. We’ve never had any animosity here,” said Joyce Goldstone, Barrie’s longtime neighbor. “Whenever there were riots all over, the police there was nothing like that here. I was born Catholic and my husband is Jewish – we all have the same Ten Commandments, so why can’t we all get along?”