Key facts
- A public inquiry has been launched into the deaths of two Jewish men in a Manchester synagogue attack.
- Interior minister Shabana Mahmood announced the inquiry on Monday.
- Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed during the attack on October 2, 2025.
- The attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie, was shot dead by police.
- The inquiry will allow for sensitive national security material to be heard in private.
- The chief coroner, Judge Alexia Durran, recommended the public inquiry.
Britain's interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, announced on Monday that a public inquiry will be held into the deaths of two Jewish men, Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz, who were killed during an attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester on October 2, 2025. The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The attacker, 35-year-old British citizen Jihad Al-Shamie, was shot dead by police at the scene. He had told police he was acting for Islamic State.
Mahmood stated that the public inquiry "will ensure that all evidence can be heard, including any sensitive national security material that could not otherwise be fully heard." This decision follows a recommendation from Judge Alexia Durran, the chief coroner of England and Wales, who is overseeing the inquests into the men's deaths. Judge Durran made the request after being informed that some MI5 material could not be disclosed in open court due to national security concerns. Inquests do not have the mechanism to hold secret or private hearings, which a public inquiry can facilitate by excluding the press and public from certain sessions.
Lawyers for the victims' families had questioned the necessity of private hearings for MI5 material, particularly as authorities had publicly stated that Al-Shamie was not known to security services. Al-Shamie initiated the attack by driving into the synagogue's perimeter gates and then assaulting worshippers with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt. Cravitz died from multiple knife wounds, and Daulby was killed by a bullet fired by responding armed officers.