Jewish passengers were left terrified after a man claiming to be armed with a knife subjected them to a torrent of antisemitic abuse on a London bus, threatening to kill Jewish children and telling them “shame Hitler didn’t kill you” — the latest in a rapidly escalating wave of attacks targeting the capital’s Jewish community.
The incident took place on a number 254 bus travelling along Upper Clapton Road in Hackney on Thursday afternoon, with some passengers travelling to and from Stamford Hill, home to one of the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Britain. Witnesses said the man shouted that passengers “should all go to the gas chambers” before making explicit threats against Jewish children. The bus driver immediately stopped the vehicle and activated an alarm. Volunteers from Shomrim, a Jewish neighbourhood watch organisation, helped detain the man before Metropolitan Police officers arrived and arrested him.
A 50-year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of making threats to kill and an offence under Section 4A of the Public Order Act. Officers searched him and found no weapon. The Met told the Daily Mail: “The Met takes incidents of this nature incredibly seriously. The incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime and our enquiries continue.”
The bus attack came just a day after it emerged that three 14-year-old Jewish schoolboys had been forced to flee for their lives when a black saloon car mounted the pavement at speed as they waited to cross a road near their school in Hendon, north London. The incident occurred on 20 April at around 3.40pm. As the boys scrambled clear, the driver manoeuvred back onto the road and drove away toward the A406. The father of one of the boys told the Daily Mail his son had been left “shaken, but with it,” adding: “They were visibly Jewish kids. He was waiting at the lights and saw these kids and saw an opportunity.” Another parent, who said they had lived in England for 53 years, said they were “horrified” and had never experienced anything like it. “I’ve got to look out on the streets for a car that might be running near my children,” they said. “It’s unbelievable.”
The suspected ramming took place just three days after a former Jewish charity premises in Hendon was targeted by arsonists — part of a broader pattern of attacks that has included attempted arson at synagogues in Finchley and Kenton, an attack on a memorial wall in Golders Green on 28 April, and a double stabbing in Golders Green on 29 April in which two Jewish men were attacked in broad daylight. That stabbing is being treated by police as an act of terrorism.
Against that backdrop, the Metropolitan Police revealed on Wednesday that antisemitic hate crimes in London have reached their highest level in two years. Some 140 offences were recorded across the capital in April alone, up from 98 in March and 67 in February. The borough of Barnet — which encompasses Hendon, Finchley and Golders Green — accounted for 51 of those 140 incidents, representing 36 per cent of the total.
In response, the Met has announced the creation of a dedicated community protection team of 100 additional officers, combining neighbourhood policing with specialist protection and counter-terrorism capabilities. The force acknowledged that the Jewish community “faces some of the highest levels of hate crime alongside significant terrorist and hostile state threats.”
Anyone with information about the bus incident is asked to contact police on 101 quoting CAD 5358/7MAY, or to call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
