British police charge two Iranians with planning terror attack on Manchester’s Jewish community

Two Iranians have been accused of planning a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in Manchester, British police announced Friday.

The suspects appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, where neither pleaded guilty, the Associated Press reported. The judge ordered them detained until their appearance on October 23 at the Central Criminal Court in London.

These arrests come almost a year after a deadly knife and gun attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in north Manchester, where worshipers had gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Two people died during this attack on October 2, 2025.

The UK Metropolitan Police said in a press release that Salam Ahmadyan, 36, from Liverpool, and Rahman Salehi, 34, from Salford, both Iranian nationals, were arrested in Manchester on September 20.

“It is alleged that both men were in contact with a foreign third party who may be in Iran as part of the plot,” the Met wrote.

The Associated Press reported that the third party provided instructions on how to make a homemade chlorine bomb.

“We do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the public in relation to this matter,” Deputy Commissioner Vicki Evans said in a statement.

“This news will be deeply distressing for our Jewish communities, as it comes so soon after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,” British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement. “I know this will be particularly true in Manchester, as we mark one year since the terrorist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue.”

Mahmood also added in her statement that “the two suspects” had “arrived by small boat several years ago”, which she said was a “reminder of the importance of our hard work to combat illegal migration in this country”. Salehi was granted asylum and Ahmadyan has a pending asylum application, the Associated Press reported.

Last year was marked by a wave of attacks in the British capital targeting Jewish or Israel-linked places.

It also comes after five British nationals, all men in their 20s, were arrested on September 27 in a village in the southwest of England, near the British air base RAF Fairford, suspected of preparing a terrorist act. The base was used by American bombers to launch attacks on Iran during the Middle East war. The men were later released on bail.

On Thursday, British authorities arrested a 25-year-old man with dual British and Iranian nationality in London on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack near RAF Fairford air base. He was also released on bail on Saturday, Britain’s counter-terrorism agency said.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the British government believes that Iran “played a role” in the September 27 incident. The Iranian government has denied any involvement.