MANCHESTER, England (CN) - A 45-year-old man was charged with attempted murder Friday after two Jewish men were stabbed in north London, in an attack police are treating as terrorism.

Essa Suleiman appeared in court Friday accused of attacking Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, in Golders Green on Wednesday. He did not enter a plea.

Both victims suffered serious injuries and were taken to the hospital. One has since been discharged and the other is in stable condition.

Prosecutors said Suleiman also tried to kill a third man, Ishmail Hussein, earlier the same day at a flat in south London. 

Suleiman faces an additional charge of possessing a knife in a public place.

The case has been sent to the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court in London that handles serious criminal cases, where Suleiman is due to appear May 15. He remains in custody.

Authorities said Suleiman, who was born in Somalia and became a British citizen after arriving in the U.K. as a child, had been a patient at a South London mental health trust. In 2020, he was referred to the Prevent program, the country's counter-radicalization initiative. Police said his file was closed later the same year and didn't give the reason for the referral.

Prosecutor Emma Harraway told the court he suffered a medical episode after his arrest and was briefly hospitalized.

The Metropolitan Police declared the Golders Green attack a terrorist incident, placing it at the center of a broader national security response.

The attack prompted the U.K. government to raise the national terrorism threat level to "severe" on Thursday, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday "an attack on our Jewish community is an attack on all of us," adding "there is a very deep sense of anxiety, of concern about security, about safety, about identity frankly."

Starmer was heckled with shouts of "Jew harmer" when he visited a community center after the attack, with members of the Jewish community complaining the government is not taking threats to their safety seriously enough.

The government said it would invest a further $34 million in increased security for Jewish communities, boosting police patrols and protection around synagogues and schools.

Rise in extremism and antisemitism

The government said the decision to elevate the national threat level reflects a broader rise in extremism and hate incidents.

Official data shows 8,517 people were referred to the Prevent program in the year ending March 2025, a 27% increase and the highest annual figure since records began in 2015.

At the same time, antisemitic incidents remain near record highs.

The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Jewish hate, reported 3,700 incidents in 2025, the second-highest total on record and part of a sustained rise since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Lord John Mann, the government's independent adviser on antisemitism, said the increase in threats was "inevitable" after what he described as a prolonged period of hostility toward Jewish communities.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the Golders Green attack had caused "deep concern and anguish" but praised the resilience of the Jewish community.

He warned of the "normalization of antisemitism and it has not been taken seriously enough," calling for stronger action from both the government and the public.

The terror attack follows a string of recent incidents.

Last year, two people were killed in a terrorist attack outside a synagogue in north Manchester, underscoring concerns about threats to Jewish communities beyond London. Ambulances from a Jewish service were set on fire earlier this year.

In a separate case Friday, a jury convicted Abdullah Albadri, 34, of preparing terrorist acts after he tried to breach security at the Israeli Embassy in London with two knives. 

Prosecutors said Albadri, who had arrived in the U.K. by a small boat weeks earlier, told officers he wanted to "do something to stop the war" in Gaza.

Together, the cases have intensified scrutiny of Britain's counterterrorism efforts and the safety of Jewish communities, as officials warn the threat environment is becoming more volatile.

Green leader apologizes after criticizing police

The case also sparked a political dispute over police tactics during the arrest.

Zack Polanski, the populist left-wing leader of the Green Party, shared a social media post criticizing officers' use of force.

Footage appeared to show officers use a Taser on the suspect, who fell to the ground, before kicking him in the head as they tried to remove a knife from his hand.

Polanski claimed officers were "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head" after he had been incapacitated.

Polanski, who is Jewish, later apologized, saying: "Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologize for sharing a tweet in haste."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley defended the officers in an open letter addressed to Polanski, saying they believed the suspect could be a terrorist and feared he might be carrying explosives.

"They were not armed officers, and they feared he was concealing an explosive device," Rowley said, adding their actions "undoubtedly prevented further injury."

Addressing Polanski, Rowley said: "Your decision to criticize these officers, using your public profile and reach, will have a chilling effect."

Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.

Source: Courthouse News Service