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Attending weekly worship services is statistically one of the safest activities around. Despite billions of attendees globally each year, the number of fatalities resulting from attacks on places of worship remains comparatively low, typically less than a few hundred annually.
However, the recent assault on one of the nation’s largest synagogues on Thursday has heightened global concerns among religious leaders and congregants. This attack is part of a troubling trend of violence directed at religious sites.
Below is a recounting of several significant attacks on places of worship over the past 15 years.
United States
On March 12, 2026, a man armed with a rifle drove his vehicle into a prominent reform synagogue in a Detroit suburb. He was subsequently shot and killed by security personnel. The attacker crashed through doors and into a hallway, where something in his vehicle ignited, according to a sheriff’s report. Following the attack, smoke poured from the synagogue, which also serves as an early childhood center. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
Earlier, on September 29, 2025, a former Marine carried out a violent attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan. He rammed a pickup truck into the building during a crowded Sunday service, opened fire, and set the church ablaze. The assailant was ultimately shot by police, but not before four people were killed and eight others injured.
Aug. 27, 2025: Two children were killed and several others were injured in a shooting during Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. The shooter, who authorities say died of a self-inflicted gunshot, was a former student at the parish’s school.
Oct. 27, 2018: Eleven Jews attending services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh were fatally shot by a white supremacist with a history of antisemitism. The gunman, Robert Bowers, faces execution after his conviction on multiple federal charges.
Nov. 5, 2017: A family feud is believed to have prompted the deadliest mass shooting in modern Texas history. Twenty-five people, including a pregnant woman, were killed at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.
June 17, 2015: A young man walked into a Bible study session at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people. The victims included the senior pastor, Clementa Pinckney. The shooter was an avowed white supremacist who is awaiting execution after his conviction on multiple federal charges.
Aug. 5, 2012: Six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in the town of Oak Creek were shot to death by a 41-year-old white supremacist who had discussed a racial holy war. One of the injured victims died in 2020 from his head wound, becoming the seventh fatality.
Australia
Dec. 14, 2025: A father and son fatally shot 15 people at a Hanukkah festival on the famous Bondi Beach. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
Dec. 6, 2024: As part of a wave of antisemitic attacks, a synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed. The building was heavily damaged, and a congregation member was injured. Australian authorities have accused Iran of directing that attack.
Congo
July 27, 2025: Several dozen people were killed in Congo’s Ituri province when rebels stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and opened fire on worshippers.
Egypt
Egypt reeled in November 2017 from the killing of more than 300 people in a startlingly grisly militant attack on a mosque in northern Sinai frequented by Sufis, followers of a mystic movement within Islam. At that point, Egypt’s military and security forces had already been waging a campaign against militants in northern Sinai.
April 9, 2017: Suicide bombers struck hours apart at two Coptic churches in northern Egypt, killing more than 40 people and turning Palm Sunday services into scenes of horror and outrage. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility and vowed to continue attacks against Christians.
Britain
Oct. 2, 2025: An attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, by a knife-wielding assailant left two congregation members dead. According to police, it was carried out by a man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
June 19, 2017: A man drove a van at pedestrians near a mosque in London as worshippers were leaving after prayers. One man died; a dozen others were injured. The attacker was sentenced to at least 43 years in prison. A judge said he had been radicalized by far-right and Islamophobic propaganda online.
France
Oct, 29, 2020: Three people were killed in a stabbing attack at a Catholic basilica in the French Riviera city of Nice. A Tunisian man charged with the attack was later sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, France’s most severe sentence possible.
July 26, 2016: Two assailants slit the throat of an 85-year-old priest after staging an attack on a Mass at a Catholic church in Normandy. The attackers were killed by police as they left the church. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Germany
Oct. 9, 2019: A right-wing extremist tried to shoot his way into a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur while broadcasting the attack live on a popular gaming site. After failing to open the building’s heavy doors, he shot and killed a woman in the street and a man at a nearby kebab shop. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
March 9, 2023: A former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses opened fire during a service at a Witnesses hall in Hamburg, killing six people and then himself. Nine other people were wounded.
Oct. 18, 2023: Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin. The firebombs burst on the sidewalk next to the building, and two people who had approached the synagogue with them ran away with their faces covered. The attempted arson shortly after Hamas’ attack on Israel drew strong condemnation.
New Zealand
March 15, 2019: A white supremacist gunned down worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers, killing 51. The attacks prompted new laws banning an array of semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook. The assailant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the first time the maximum available sentence had been imposed in New Zealand.
Norway
Aug. 10, 2019: A white nationalist Norwegian, Philip Manshaus, killed his Chinese-born stepsister and then drove to a mosque in an Oslo suburb where three men were preparing for Eid al-Adha celebrations. He fired rifle shots at the mosque’s glass door before being overpowered by one of the men.
Syria
June 22, 2025: A suicide bomber opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church near Damascus filled with people praying, killing more than 20 and wounding dozens, state media reported.