Manchester synagogue chlorine bomb plot charged on anniversary of fatal attack

Two Iranian men have been charged with preparing terrorist acts after allegedly scouting a Manchester synagogue and a nearby Jewish museum for an attack involving a homemade chlorine bomb.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, 3 October 2026, and were remanded in custody. Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court the pair had conducted hostile reconnaissance of the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue and the Jewish Museum in Cheetham Hill. They were directed by a third person believed to be in Iran, who coordinated plans and provided instructions for making a chlorine bomb.

On Yom Kippur, 2 October 2025, Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, crashed his car into the synagogue gates. He stabbed worshipper Melvin Cravitz, 66, to death. Adrian Daulby, 53, was fatally wounded by a police bullet while holding the synagogue doors shut to protect congregants inside.

Neither Ahmadyan nor Salehi entered a plea. Judge Nina Tempia ordered them held until a 23 October appearance at the Central Criminal Court in London.

The charges, laid exactly one year after the 2025 killings, point to a continuing and possibly state-directed threat against Jewish targets in the UK. The alleged use of a chemical device and the timing — on the anniversary of an attack that killed two men — suggest a deliberate effort to compound trauma and test security responses. The prosecutor’s account places the direction of the plot outside the country, raising questions about the reach of any network behind it.