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Police are treating the stabbing of two men in Golders Green, north London as terrorism, with the suspect described as hunting for anyone “visibly Jewish” to attack.
The stabbings happened just after 11am on Wednesday with the violence coming after a series of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London since March, including two previous incidents in Golders Green.
The victims are aged 76 and 34 and both are said to be in a stable condition in hospital.
A man aged 45 was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder after being shot with a stun gun to subdue him, the Metropolitan police said.
The Met said the suspect also tried to stab officers detaining him but they were unhurt.
British counter-terrorism officials are studying a claim of responsibility for the stabbings by a group linked to Iran known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI). The group has claimed a string of attacks across Europe since March, mainly targeting Jewish communities.
The suspect was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and the Jewish security group Shomrim said he was “attempting to stab Jewish members of the public”.
A video showed the man walking almost casually and then lunging towards a man standing at a bus stop wearing a kippah, or male Jewish head covering.
The suspect with a knife in his right hand repeatedly swings the weapon at the upper body of the man while holding him with his left hand. The man being attacked is forced backwards with video showing passersby rushing to try to help him.
Another video shows the arrest, with the suspect walking down a sidestreet, clutching the knife, towards two Met officers and a Shomrim volunteer. An officer uses Pava spray to try to subdue him before the suspect is shot with a Taser.
The suspect falls to the ground and officers kick him in the head shouting repeatedly “drop the knife”, as they try to get the suspect’s hands behind his back to handcuff him. At least one member of the public appears to help the two officers, at one point sitting on top of the suspect.
The scene is close to a memorial wall where an attempted arson attack took place on Monday, and close to where four Jewish community ambulances were destroyed by fire in March, in an attack suspected to have been carried out by criminal proxies hired by Iran.
The head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said: “This has now formally been declared a terrorist incident. Our highly specialised teams of officers are working with the Metropolitan police to progress this investigation quickly and establish exactly what has happened.”
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: “The antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.
“Thank you to Shomrim, Hatzola and the police for acting swiftly. Those responsible will be brought to justice.”
The Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, in a statement near the scene of the attacks said the suspect had a history of serious violence and mental health issues.
“This is an attack on one community, an attack on one community is an attack on all London’s communities. This was an attack on Londoners. It is an attack on British Jews,” he said.
Rowley denounced antisemitism and said more was needed to combat it, but a small group nearby barracked him, chanting “shame on you” and calling on him to resign as the commissioner of Britain’s largest force.
Rowley struggled to be heard amid the chants. The commissioner said: “Jewish communities are understandably angry. There have been too many attacks.”
The stabbings in Golders Green follow a terrorist attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester last year where two people died and the attacker was shot dead by police. In that case the attacker claimed he carried out the atrocity for Islamic State.
Islamic State and al-Qaida propaganda has recently called for attacks on Jewish people and targets. A series of attacks since March, first in mainland Europe and then in London against Jewish targets, are suspected of being carried out by criminal proxies at the behest of Iran.
The Met said: “At 11:16hrs on Wednesday 29 April, officers responded following reports of people stabbed in Highfield Avenue.
“Local officers and armed officers attended, alongside the London ambulance service.
“The suspect also attempted to stab police officers, and was Tasered before being arrested. No officers were injured.”
A Jewish group, Shomrim, runs security patrols in the area. Ben Grosnass of the Shomrim Northwest Community Patrol, said: “We got a call to our hotline around 11.20 this morning, with a lot of panic in their voice, explaining there’s a man running around with a knife on Golders Green Road and Highfield Avenue, stabbing people.
Grosnass said they dispatched volunteers to the scene and had individuals follow the attacker, managing to apprehend him with the police in attendance.
He said the attacker had chased individuals coming out of the synagogue. “He was trying to attack anyone visibly Jewish.”
“There was someone else standing at a bus stop on Golders Green Road, outside the fruit store Normans, and he was pushed down to the ground, and the fellow jumped on top of him, stabbed him repeatedly.”
Stephen Bak, of Shomrim Northwest Community Patrol, said his organisation was on the scene within a minute: “[The attacks have] increased a lot in the past couple of years, but in the past few months our volunteers are really stretched. We’re receiving calls all day, every day … We just really need further assistance from government.”
There has been a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks in the UK since the war in Gaza.
Taylor said: “Now, that community are strong, but they will be incredibly concerned to see and hear what has happened today, particularly in the wake of other incidents in recent weeks. And that concern will be felt not just in the capital, but in communities and homes across the UK.
“I want to make it clear, that counter-terrorism policing and police forces up and down the country are mobilising to provide additional support and reassurance.”
The Community Security Trust, which works to keep Jewish communities safe from attack, said: “This series of violent attacks on the Jewish community is unprecedented and completely unacceptable.
“It is an affront to our country and to our British way of life, and every effort must be made, by all parts of society, to combat it.”
Britain’s chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said: “Following the antisemitic stabbing of two Jewish people on the streets of Golders Green this morning, words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.
“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country. This is a hatred that we must face down together.”
