Two Jewish men have been stabbed in Golders Green in what is being treated as an antisemitic attack, as a suspect who was seen running along one of north London’s most recognisable Jewish high streets armed with a knife and attempting to attack members of the public was detained by community volunteers before being Tasered and arrested by police.
The attack unfolded on Golders Green Road, with witnesses describing the attacker running through the street targeting Jewish passersby. Volunteer security group Shomrim, which provides patrols across ultra-Orthodox Haredi neighbourhoods, intervened and held the man until officers arrived. Both victims suffered serious injuries, with footage from the scene showing at least one receiving CPR on the street.
One witness, who gave his name as Shlomoh, told the Daily Mail he arrived while the road was still open. “There were two police officers and a Shomrim member Tasering and hitting the suspect,” he said. “Members of the public came out and helped detain him and within the space of a minute and a half there was a lot of police and the road was cordoned off within five minutes.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the incident as “deeply concerning” when addressing MPs in the Commons. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp went further, saying the attack was “yet another appalling antisemitic attack” and accusing the Government of failing to adequately protect Jewish communities. “We have seen Iran sponsoring antisemitic attacks and Islamist extremism run rampant,” he wrote on X. “The Government must urgently step up tangible actions against antisemitism, Iran and Islamist extremism.”
The Community Security Trust confirmed the attack and praised the swift response from Shomrim, Hatzola and the Metropolitan Police. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was liaising with the CST, Government and police to “ensure a forceful response.”
The stabbing is the latest in a deeply alarming sequence of attacks against Jewish targets in north London. Golders Green Road is approximately five minutes from where four Hatzola community ambulances were firebombed last month, causing gas canisters to explode with sufficient force to shatter windows in a nearby block of flats. A synagogue described as one of Europe’s oldest had its roof damaged and stained glass windows smashed in a separate arson attack. There have also been incidents at Finchley Reform Synagogue, an attempted arson at Kenton United Synagogue — for which a 17-year-old pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday — drone activity near the Israeli Embassy, jars containing powdered substances left in Kensington Gardens, and an attack on a Persian-language media organisation opposed to the Iranian regime.
Pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia has claimed responsibility for several of the attacks. Counter-terror police have been investigating possible Iranian proxy involvement, and on Sunday a 37-year-old man was arrested near Barnstaple in Devon on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. He was taken 210 miles to London for questioning and has since been bailed, becoming the 26th person detained in connection with the wave of attacks since the Golders Green firebombing.
Police are also separately investigating an arson attack on a memorial wall just streets from Tuesday’s stabbing. The wall, which pays tribute to protesters killed during a crackdown in Iran in January and includes a section dedicated to victims of the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival in 2023, was targeted on Monday evening. Counter Terror Policing Scotland Yard is leading that investigation. The wall itself was not damaged but scorch marks were found nearby and the area has been sealed off.
An eyewitness told the BBC that one stabbing took place outside shops on Golders Green Road while the second occurred outside a synagogue.
