Two men arrested over suspected Manchester Jewish community terror plot
Counterterrorism police arrested two men in their 30s on Sunday over a suspected plot to target Manchester's Jewish community during the Jewish festival period.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Counterterrorism police have arrested two men over a suspected plot to target the Jewish community in Manchester. The men, both in their 30s, were arrested on Sunday. The arrests took place in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Searches were carried out in Salford and Liverpool. The men are being held at a London police station.
Police said the arrests followed a long-running, proactive investigation. They believe the plot was aimed at Manchester's Jewish community during the Jewish festival period, which includes Yom Kippur. The arrests came on Sunday, the start of Yom Kippur, when thousands of Jewish people were in synagogues. Security and police presence was already high. The suspected plot has been described as fairly imminent.
Counterterrorism police said they believe they have disrupted the plot. The senior national coordinator for counter-terror policing, Vicki Evans, said they were still pursuing a number of lines of inquiry. She said they did not think there were further threats to the public. She also accepted the news would be a very worrying time for the Jewish community and the wider public in Manchester. Police said they were acutely aware the news would cause further concern.
The timing has added to anxiety. Last year on Yom Kippur, two Jewish men, Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, were killed in an attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. The Community Security Trust, which coordinates security for Jewish communities in the UK, described the suspected plot as utterly chilling, coming so close to that anniversary.
Police said they do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the public in connection with this investigation. Inquiries continue.
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | BBC One | ITV |
|---|---|---|
| Police said they did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public and were still pursuing lines of inquiry. | ||
| Two men in their 30s were arrested on Sunday in Manchester's Northern Quarter over a suspected plot to target the Jewish community, with searches in Liverpool and Salford. | ||
| Police described the suspected plot as fairly imminent. | · | |
| The arrested men were held in a London police station. | · | |
| The Community Security Trust described the suspected plot as extremely alarming and noted its proximity to the anniversary of the Heaton Park attack. | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
This bulletin led on the arrests with detailed context about Yom Kippur and named the victims of last year's Heaton Park attack. It stressed the plot was described as fairly imminent and quoted counter-terrorism chief Vicki Evans on continuing inquiries. It did not give the exact arrest location or custody location.
- “the Metropolitan Police have confirmed in their words they are investigating a suspected terrorist plot against Manchester's Jewish community.”
- “It's been described to me as a fairly imminent plot.”
- “Vicki Evans, said they were still pursuing a number of lines in inquiry. They don't think there are further threats to the public”
This bulletin repeated the main details and added that the men were being held in a London police station. It said police believe they have foiled the plot and reported no public threat. It used an alternative spelling for the victims of last year's Heaton Park attack and did not mention the Northern Quarter.
- “the police say the Metropolitan Police say that they believe they have foiled what they call a suspected terrorist plot targeting Manchester's Jewish community”
- “two arrests of men in their 30s on Sunday in the city and searches in Salford and In Liverpool”
- “the men are being held in a London police station”
ITV gave the most precise location for the arrests, saying they took place in Manchester's Northern Quarter. It quoted counter-terrorism police at length and included the Community Security Trust's reaction that the suspected plot was utterly chilling. It linked the timing closely to the Heaton Park synagogue attack anniversary and did not mention searches in Salford or Liverpool.
- “The two men, both in their 30s, arrested in the Northern Quarter in Manchester over a suspected terrorist plot to target the Jewish community in the city.”
- “police say they don't believe there's any ongoing threat to the public in connection to this”
- “describing the suspected plot as utterly chilling, coming so close to that anniversary”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.