Fatal attack on Manchester synagogue
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two people have been killed by a car that drove into a crowd outside a British synagogue on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Another man was stabbed at the site. We hear the latest news on the incident.
Also in the programme: a wide-ranging interview with the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Maria Corina Machado, who is in hiding after being barred from last year's election; and a BBC analysis of Ukrainian drone attacks against Russian oil refineries.
We also hear about a new exhibition in Cambridge that sheds light on craftspeople in ancient Egypt.
(Photo: People gather near the scene following an incident outside a synagogue in Manchester, Credit: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello and welcome to News Air from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.8 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:16.0 | And we're going to start today with that news of a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester in northern England. Today is |
| 0:22.4 | Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. According to the information we have so far, |
| 0:28.4 | two people have been killed and two more have been seriously injured after a car was seen |
| 0:33.0 | driving at members of the public. A man was then stabbed outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester. One man filmed the police operation, posted it on social media. This is part of that video. Everybody else. Get back. If you're not in for, move back. Get away. Somebody's standing in the country. Everybody else. He has a ball. Go away. He's got a bobble. The next thing you're going to get away. Everybody else. He has a ball. Go away. He's got a bobble. |
| 0:57.0 | The next thing you hear is a shot. As police fire on a man who's lying prone on the ground outside the synagogue, but who's pushing himself up to get off the floor. He, the suspect, is now thought to be dead. |
| 1:09.4 | Elsewhere in the video, you see a man at the entrance to the synagogue bleeding on the ground. |
| 1:13.5 | And although a bomb was mentioned in that video, that hasn't yet been confirmed. |
| 1:18.6 | The British Prime Minister Kirstarmer has cut short his attendance at a European summit in Denmark |
| 1:22.7 | to chair an emergency meeting. |
| 1:24.9 | Before boarding his flight home, he made this statement. |
| 1:28.6 | The attack in Manchester this morning is absolutely shocking. And all of our thoughts |
| 1:33.9 | with those affected. I'm on my way back to London. When I arrive, I will chair an emergency |
| 1:39.6 | cobra meeting. I'm already able to say that additional police assets are being deployed to synagogues |
| 1:45.8 | across the country and we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe. |
| 1:50.8 | Our correspondent Rob Watson's on the line. And Rob, as ever in these situations, details coming in |
| 1:56.1 | all the time. But just take us through what we think happened this morning. Well, it all happened very quickly at around about 9.30 this morning in the morning. |
| 2:06.2 | The police got the report, a 999 call from a member of the public saying that a car had been swerving around, hitting people, |
| 2:13.5 | that someone had got out and then started stabbing people. |
... |
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