UK police say they may have shot dead victim in Manchester synagogue attack: Reuters

Ahram Online , Friday 3 Oct 2025

UK police said one of the two people killed in an attack outside a Manchester synagogue may have been fatally shot by officers responding to the scene, as Britain remained on heightened alert on Friday following the incident, Reuters reported.

Police Crime Scene Investigators work in the road outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester. AFP

The suspect, Jihad al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by armed officers at the scene. He was not carrying a firearm, according to Greater Manchester Police chief constable Stephen Watson, although one of the victims had suffered a gunshot wound.

A forensic pathologist has “provisionally determined that one of the deceased victims would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury,” Watson said in a statement.

“It follows, therefore, this injury may have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end,” he added.

Another worshipper is also believed to have been struck by police fire, sustaining a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to Reuters. Both victims are thought to have been standing close together behind the synagogue door as worshippers tried to block the attacker from entering.

Police said there were no records indicating that Shamie had ever been referred to the government’s anti-radicalisation programme.

Greater Manchester Police said the investigation remains ongoing, with three others arrested on suspicion of terror-related offences, according to AFP.

Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood confirmed that the national terror threat level had been raised.

“Our priority is making sure that our citizens here at home are safe,” she told Sky News, adding that additional police resources had been deployed across the country.