'In the presence of evil' Survivor of synagogue knife attack speaks out

It was about 6 am when Yoni Finlay woke early with nerves.

- Josh Halliday North of England editor

It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and the 39-year-old was due to sing the dawn prayer, shacharis, to hundreds of worshippers that morning.

After practising his verse, Finlay buttoned up his white robes and headed to Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. He greeted familiar faces - exchanging a cheery hello with Bernard Agyemang, the security guard - then took a seat on the stage and said prayers.

"And then we heard a bang," he said. He remembers Alan Levy, the chair of the synagogue's trustees, running into the synagogue saying: "Close the doors, close the doors."

Finlay rushed to the entrance to see what was happening. Through the reinforced glass, he saw Agyemang's crumpled body on the ground. He turned to see Andrew Franks, a volunteer security guard, covered in blood.

The moment that many in Britain's Jewish community had feared was finally here. They were under attack.

Finlay, a father of four, helped barricade the doors as the attacker tried to force entry. "He was pulling them as we were holding them, and they were buckling," he said.

He saw the attacker's knife - "I've never seen such a large blade on a knife" - and what looked like a bomb strapped to his waist. "He was shouting something to do with killing children."

Finlay said he saw evil as he looked at the knifeman: "I've never felt this before, I've never experienced it, but there was evil. We were in the presence of evil.