Two Jewish men stabbed in London in what police call terrorist incident

By Issy Ronald, Jomana Karadsheh, Florence Davey-Attlee, CNN

London (CNN) — Two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight in a leafy suburb of north London on Wednesday in what police described as a terrorist incident, further rattling a Jewish community already reeling from a series of antisemitic attacks in the British capital.

A 45-year-old man, who is also accused of trying to stab police officers, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

In an update Wednesday night, police said the suspect “is a British national, born in Somalia.” He was initially taken to a hospital but was later discharged and is now in custody at a London police station, they said.

Two men, ages 76 and 34, were injured in the attack in Golders Green at about 11:16 a.m. local time and are in a stable condition in a hospital, police added. No officers were injured.

Security camera footage, obtained by CNN, shows the victims being attacked. One was standing beside a bus stop, putting on his kippah, when a man shoved him against a sign and repeatedly stabbed him. The other was walking down a street when he was stabbed and yelled at the attacker before managing to run away.

The suspect has a “history of serious violence and mental health issues,” London’s police commissioner, Mark Rowley, told reporters.

“This has now formally been declared a terrorist incident,” London’s head of counterterrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement. Police are investigating “whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London,” he added.

Counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation and working to establish the suspect’s background and any terrorist links, police said.

Detectives are also investigating an incident earlier Wednesday in which a man armed with a knife injured a resident at an address in southeast London before fleeing, the update said. Police believe that attack was carried out by the same individual who stabbed the two Jewish men.

Volunteers from local neigborhood watch group Shomrim were on the scene quickly, Rabbi Herschel Gluck, who oversees a nearby branch of the organization, told CNN. They “apprehended the stabber and held on to him until the police came,” he said.

Once police arrived, the suspect walked toward officers, who eventually tasered and detained him, according to videos filmed by local residents.

Police had cordoned off large swaths of the road by the time CNN reached the area, and several emergency service vehicles, including an ambulance and police helicopter, were deployed.

London’s Jewish community has been targeted by several antisemitic attacks in recent weeks. In the wake of such violence, this attack left one local resident “very shocked and, perhaps even more troubling, not surprised.”

“It’s an impossible scenario where the Jewish community day after day is being attacked,” David Meyer, the CEO of the Jewish educational organization PaJeS, told CNN.

“It’s not acceptable that people cannot walk along the street without fear of being attacked,” he said, adding that he is afraid of that fear “becoming normalized.”

Wave of antisemitic attacks

This stabbing is the latest in a string of attacks targeting synagogues and other communal buildings that have left London’s Jewish community in a heightened state of anxiety.

Last month, arsonists set fire to four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in Golders Green. Four people were subsequently charged by police.

Weeks later, a synagogue and the former premises of a Jewish charity, both in north London, were attacked.

Earlier this week, just a few streets away from the site of Wednesday’s stabbings, a suspected arson attack targeted a memorial wall that displayed photos of protesters killed by Iranian security forces during a brutal crackdown earlier this year and photos of those killed in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the site of the stabbings, Rowley said there has been a rise in racist and antisemitic hate crime. “We know that some individuals are being encouraged, persuaded or paid to commit acts of violence on behalf of foreign organizations and hostile states,” the police commissioner said.

Police have “significantly stepped up” activity in the capital because of the recent attacks, Rowley said.

“In recent weeks, we have deployed thousands of additional officer shifts to protect Londoners, alongside intensified investigations that have already led to the arrest of 28, particularly those targeting the Jewish community,” he said. Eight people have already been charged, he added.

“We feel very unsafe, knowing that we’re going to the synagogue every day and attackers are walking by and stabbing people,” Avi Yodaiken, who has lived in Golders Green for 20 years, told CNN.

He knew one of the victims, he said, who was “just going to … the synagogue and he came out and he was stabbed.”

Antisemitic attacks in the United Kingdom have increased since 2023, when Israel’s brutal war in Gaza began in response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks.

‘Appalling’ attack

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the “antisemitic attack” as “utterly appalling.”

“We all need to … be absolutely clear in our determination to deal with any of these offenses, the like of which we’ve seen too much recently,” he told Parliament.

He also thanked the local charity security group Shomrim, Hatzola — a Jewish ambulance service — and the police for responding so quickly.

King Charles III, who is currently on a state visit to the United States, was informed of the incident, according to a spokesperson.

“His thoughts and prayers are with the two individuals who were injured,” the spokesperson said, adding that the king “offers his heartfelt gratitude to those who so selflessly rushed to their aid.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “horrified by yet another violent attack on Jews in broad daylight on the streets of London.” He called on the British government to “take urgent and immediate action before the next antisemitic attack occurs.”

This is a developing story and has been updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Max Foster, Lianne Kolirin and Magdalena Vitores Moreno contributed to this report.