'Very, very brave men' Rabbi pays tribute to those who held off attacker

Rabbi Daniel Walker, who was leading Thursday's Synagogue service in Manchester, spoke of the shocking moment the attacker attempted to force his way inside the building.

- Chris Osuh Community affairs editor

He described the "very, very brave men" who helped him hold the doors as Jihad al-Shamie repeatedly tried to get inside while brandishing a knife and shouting threats.

In his first interview since the attack, he told ITV: "When I first arrived at the synagogue there was some kind of incident outside the gates. Someone behaving suspiciously and aggressively.

"Half an hour into the prayers I heard an almighty bang from outside, shouting. Someone was trying to get in with a knife. When he tried to get inside the synagogue, there was a large number of us trying to hold him off."

Yesterday Keir Starmer visited Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue along his wife, Victoria, as they met police officers at the scene of the attack. The couple also visited a London synagogue on Thursday night. But in the 24 hours after the Manchester synagogue attack, emotions were running high on the streets - and there was little confidence in national politicians' ability to calm the mood.

"Maybe I'm paranoid, but I do worry that unless there's something done, whether it's going to be another attack on the Jewish community, whether it's going to be kind of a response from the far right against the Muslim community, whatever it's going to be, I worry that more and more we're getting rising extremism and there isn't anything being done to deal with it other than thoughts and prayers being given from the government," Xander, 23, said.

Xander had his bar mitzvah at the synagogue that was attacked. Minutes earlier, Keir Starmer had visited the synagogue, but Xander wasn't impressed.

"Most of the people I've spoken to have believed that he's Neville Chamberlain 2.0. He's trying to appease everyone on every side of the political spectrum and unfortunately all it's doing is alienating everyone.

"I worry that the result is that we'll then get, come the next election, a much more extremist party in power.