British police have arrested a man after two people were stabbed in Golders Green, an area of north London with a large Jewish population, the Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Golders Green is home to a large Jewish community, and there is a substantial Iranian diaspora living nearby in north London.
Shomrim, a Jewish security organisation, said on X that a man was seen running with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public, before its officers detained him. Police then attended and deployed a taser, the group added. The Metropolitan Police in London said that the suspect also attempted to stab police officers, but no officer was injured. Police also said the two men who had been stabbed had been taken to the hospital and were in a stable condition.
The UK counter-terror police investigating the stabbing said the attack is being treated as a “terrorist incident”.
“Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation. I can also confirm that this has now formally been declared a terrorist incident,” said Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing.
“Our highly specialised teams of officers are working with the Metropolitan Police to progress the investigation quickly – and establish exactly what has happened. We are also working with the security services to ensure we have a full intelligence picture. One of the lines of enquiry is whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London,” he said.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the House of Commons the incident was “deeply concerning”. London mayor Sadiq Khan condemned the attack and confirmed that police had arrested someone.
“There has been an appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners in Golders Green. The police have made an arrest, and I’d like to thank all the emergency services and heroic volunteers… for their swift response,” Khan said in a post on X.
“London’s Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks. There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society,” he added.
Pictures from the scene posted online on social media showed the emergency services standing over what appeared to be a victim lying on the street.
Over the last month, London police have arrested more than two dozen people as part of investigations into attacks on Jewish-linked premises, including the torching of ambulances and attempted arson attacks on synagogues.
Police have said they were investigating possible Iranian links to some of the incidents, and pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya has claimed some of the latest attacks on social media.
Arson attack in Golders Green
The stabbing attack came as the British police were investigating a suspected arson attack on a London memorial wall on Tuesday. The wall currently commemorates Iranians killed in anti-government protests in Iran.
The memorial wall in Golders Green originally commemorated victims of the October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on Israel. But the space was gifted to the Iranian community, who have plastered it with pictures of victims of Iran’s crackdown on protesters.
The Metropolitan Police said the arson attack took place shortly after midnight on Monday and did not damage the wall itself.