The suspect behind the deadly car and knife terror attack outside a synagogue in Manchester in the United Kingdom on Thursday has been identified by police as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent.

Police said Al-Shamie entered the United Kingdom as a young child and became a citizen in 2006. He had no previous criminal record. Al-Shamie translates into English as “the Syrian,” and authorities are unsure whether that is his birth name.

The Metropolitan Police in London declared the assault a terrorist attack. It came on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, as large crowds of worshipers gathered at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, an Orthodox synagogue. 

The attacker’s exact motive is still being probed by police. 

Emergency services escort people to safety after a car and knife terror attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, England, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. Police said two people were killed, and four others injured before armed officers shot the suspect. ( Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A bystander could be heard on the video saying the man had a bomb and was trying to push a button. When the man tried to stand up, a gunshot rang out and he fell to the ground, flopped on his back and then rolled onto his side.

In a televised address, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the assault as a “vile terrorist attack that attacked Jews, because they are Jews.”

“Antisemitism is a hatred that is rising, once again. Britain must defeat it, once again,” Starmer said. “To every Jewish person in this country: I promise that I will do everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve.

Map shows the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, England, where police say two people were killed and three others injured in a car and knife attack on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. Armed officers shot the suspect. (Fox News)

Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have soared following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.

More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest reported since the record set a year earlier.

Fox News’ Simon Owen and The Associated Press contributed to this story.