North London terror attack: Jewish first responders describe tackling knifeman

The suspect in the Golders Green terror attack is being investigated over a second incident that occurred hours before two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight yesterday, Scotland Yard has said. 

The 45-year-old suspect, who police say has a history of mental health problems and serious violence, was taken to hospital before being transferred to police custody. Detectives are investigating an “altercation” involving a man armed with a knife in Great Dover Street, near Borough station in south London at 8.50am yesterday. The suspect was referred to Prevent, the Home Office counter-extremism programme, in 2020. The referral was closed the same year, the Met police confirmed today.

The two victims have been named locally as Moshe Shine, 76, and Shloime Rand, 34. Both men were rushed to hospital and are recovering from their injuries. 

The attack is the latest in a recent series of antisemitic attacks thought to be linked to Iranian proxies or Hezbollah, Iran’s allies in Lebanon. A previously unknown pro-Iranian group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya has claimed responsibility for all the recent attacks in London, including the Golders Green stabbing, though security sources have cast doubt on the latest claim.

Rand, who was stabbed in the chest leaving a study session at the nearby Synagogue, spoke to ITV News last night, saying: “People are really concerned, people are afraid, people are uncomfortable walking in the street, people are blaming obviously the government for not doing anything about what’s going on.”

Describing the attack, he said: “He looked angry, he looked angry. You could feel it in his facial expressions, it was like he was out to get me.”

Rand said that he had been told that he would need emergency surgery but that his wounds were not as serious as he had feared.

“Thanks to God that I am recovering and the wound isn’t so bad as they initially thought,” he said, adding: “I am here and I can talk, and it’s really a miracle that has happened to me today.”

The Met police last night took the unusual step of releasing bodyworn video footage of the arrest after mobile phone video showed officers repeatedly kicking the suspect in the head while using a Taser on him. The force released a statement praising the officers for their bravery and saying that the suspect had allegedly tried to stab officers while they detained him.

Officers were assisted by two Jewish community patrol guards who were first to the scene of the attack. 

The volunteers, from the Shomrim neighbourhood watch group in northwest London, arrived within minutes of the first stabbing.

Jonathan Elkoubi, 33, and a colleague, Yitzi, in his mid-40s, arrived soon after the knife attack on Highfield Avenue in Barnet at about 11.15am on Wednesday. They pursued the knifeman until police arrived.

Speaking at the police cordon near the scene, Yitzi, who did not want to give his surname, described to The Observer how the attacker had run towards him.

“You don’t realise in the moment that you’ve got a family at home who want you to come home,” he said. “I had to run from the guy a couple of times. He was going at everyone around him, including myself. At one point he made eye contact with me and then he came at me with a knife.”

Footage showed a large-set man wearing grey trousers and a navy jacket, with a beige rucksack on his back, stabbing an older Jewish man at a bus stop before chasing and stabbing a second man.

Yitzi said his wife had called to check he was safe and he had told her that he’d kept back.

“I said I was keeping a safe distance – that I wasn’t exactly involved, if you like – and now she’s seen the video and I’m holding his head down. She’s fine, she knows I always put the community first, so in this instance it was exactly the same.”

Police arrived within 15 minutes and Tasered the suspect while the two men helped restrain him. Video footage showed officers then carrying out chest compressions on the 45-year-old man, who was arrested and remains in custody. 

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met police commissioner, was heckled at the scene with calls to resign.

In a statement he said that the suspect has “a history of serious violence and mental health issues and the investigation is ongoing”.

The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, visited Golders Green today after a small but angry protest last night in which crowds carrying Israel flags and signs reading “anti-zionism = terrorism” chanted: “Keir Starmer, Jew hater”.

The angry heckling continued as Starmer met with volunteers at the Hatzola volunteer ambulance service near the scene of the stabbings, which itself was targeted in a recent arson attack. In a statement earlier on, the PM said: “An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on all of us,” adding that the victims, had been attacked “because they are Jewish”.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that this was not a one-off,” he added. “This has been a series of attacks on our Jewish community, particularly in recent weeks, and there is a very deep sense of anxiety, of concern about security, about safety, about identity frankly.”

The Shromrim volunteers said there is a growing sense that they are unsafe outside their community and that the knife attack and recent arson attacks had shattered any sense of security in the area.

“We feel afraid. Outside of our community, it’s hard,” Yitzi said, adding that he had considered moving his family to Israel. “Israel is the only place we really feel safe.”

Elkoubi, who described blocking the attacker with his car before helping police detain him, said: “I think I’ve not yet fully recovered from or processed what actually happened.

“He [the attacker] still had the knife on him. It happened to be that I managed to grab his legs and even when he was on the floor he was still very agitated. It took quite a lot of effort to actually get the handcuffs on.”

Rowley, who met with the Shomrim volunteers as well as volunteers from the Hatzola ambulance team who tended to wounded victims, appeared beside local Sarah Sackman, the local MP, who was also heckled by the crowd.

“This was an attack on Londoners and it was an attack on British Jews,” Rowley said.

“Too many Jewish people in this country feel they have to make choices that no Briton should ever have to make, about how they dress, where they go, or how visibly they live their lives. That is completely unacceptable and has gone on for far too long.”

He questioned why there had not been more condemnation of recent attacks on Britain’s Jewish community.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who also attended the scene, said “words of condemnation are no longer sufficient” and called for “meaningful action”.

Photograph by Kin Cheung/AP