Two people were stabbed Wednesday in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, a community security group said, the latest in a string of apparently targeted attacks.
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Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood patrol group overseeing the north London suburb of Golders Green, said its team had detained a male suspect after an attack targeting “Jewish members of the public.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “deeply concerning” in Parliament after news broke of the incident.
He said an investigation was now ongoing and that the country needed to be “absolutely clear in our determination to deal with any of these offences, the likes of which we’ve seen too much recently.”
It comes just weeks after an arson attack on several ambulances in the area — home to several synagogues and dozens of Jewish schools and restaurants — that was condemned by Starmer as a “deeply shocking antisemitic” assault.
Meanwhile, a separate suspected arson attack had been reported in the area on Monday.
Shomrim said a male suspect armed with a knife had been seen running along Golders Green Road on Wednesday, “attempting to stab Jewish members of the public.”
The patrol group said two victims were stabbed and were being treated by Hatzola, a volunteer emergency medical service that operates in the area.
Police arrived on the scene and deployed a taser at one point before taking the suspect into custody, it said.
London’s Metropolitan Police did not immediately respond to a request for information from NBC News.
About 15,000 people live in Golders Green, with half being Jewish, according to 2021 census data.
The attack on several ambulances belonging to Hatzola in the area in late March sent shockwaves through the community.
Three men and a teenager have been charged in connection with the ambulance attack. They were remanded in custody last week, with a plea hearing set for August.
On Monday, a fresh suspected arson attack was also reported at a memorial wall in the Golders Green area, the Metropolitan Police said.
British broadcaster BBC News said the wall had depicted Iranians killed protesting against the country’s regime and had been situated near a Jewish center.
It said a section of the wall also commemorates those killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel.
Police said counter-terror officers were leading an investigation of that incident, but that the attack was not yet being treated as a terror incident.
“We recognise that this incident will heighten concerns in the Golders Green area, where residents have already faced a series of attacks,” Williams said in a statement Monday.
He said police had stepped up efforts to “reassure communities,” including with armed police patrols, since the arson attack last month.
Wednesday’s stabbing attack comes as the number of antisemitic incidents reported in the United Kingdom has surged since the Israel-Hamas war began in late 2023, including repeated attacks on synagogues.
The Community Security Trust, a British charity that works to protect the country’s Jewish population, recorded 3,700 incidents last year alone, compared with 1,662 in 2022.
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