An attacker rammed a car into people outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a synagogue in Manchester, England, then went on a stabbing spree on Thursday, Oct. 2, killing two people and wounding three others in what the police called an act of terrorism on Yom Kippur, the holiest Day of the Jewish calendar.

Police said officers responded in minutes and shot and killed the attacker whom they identified as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent.

The violence in Manchester came amid heightened fears across Europe and the United States for the safety of Jews amid a rise in antisemitism related to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The attack alarmed the Jewish community I Manchester, a multicultural city with large Jewish and Muslim populations, prompting a surge in police protection at Jewish cultural and religious sites across the country.