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Factbox-Deadly attacks in Britain in recent years
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 2, 2025
4 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 2, 2025
4 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
This article reviews recent deadly attacks in Britain, detailing incidents from 2017 to 2025, including their impact and security responses.
LONDON (Reuters) -British police shot dead on Thursday a man who drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a security guard near a synagogue in Manchester in northwest England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Following are some deadly attacks in Britain in recent years:
OCTOBER 2, 2025
In Thursday's incident, two people were killed and at least three others seriously injured. Police said the assailant was shot and killed. An officer had told people to move away at the scene because they believed the attacker had a bomb.
Counter-terrorism police later said they were classifying the attack as a terrorism incident and that police forces were stepping up patrols across the country.
JULY 19, 2024
Axel Rudakubana, 18, attacked children attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England, killing three girls aged six, seven and nine, and injuring ten others.
In the aftermath, far-right groups rioted and targeted a local mosque based on false claims about the suspect's background. Police did not classify the attack as terrorism, and prosecutors later described the motive as "mass murder as an end in itself".
FEBRUARY 2, 2020
Police shot dead Sudesh Amman after he stabbed two people on a busy street in south London while wearing a fake suicide vest.
Amman, who was 20 years old at the time and had recently been released from prison for terrorism offences, was under active surveillance. A third person was injured by broken glass during the police response.
JUNE 19, 2017
A British man drove a van into Muslim worshippers outside a London mosque, leaving one dead and injuring many more. The man, convicted of murder, said at his trial he had tried to kill as many as possible.
JUNE 3, 2017
Three attackers rammed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, then stabbed people in nearby bars, killing eight and injuring at least 48 before police shot all three dead. Islamic State said its militants were responsible.
MAY 22, 2017
A suicide bomber killed 22 children and adults and wounded 59 at a packed concert hall in Manchester, as crowds began to leave a concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande.
Police said they believed Salman Abedi, a then 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, had built the bomb himself in the days before the attack.
MARCH 22, 2017
An attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament in London after a car ploughed into pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge.
Six people died, including the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, and at least 20 were injured in what police called a "marauding terrorist attack".
JUNE 16, 2016
Armed with a sawn-off rifle and a dagger, a man shot and repeatedly stabbed Jo Cox, a member of parliament, in a frenzied street attack in her constituency in northern England that stunned Britain a week before the European Union referendum.
MAY 22, 2013
Two attackers drove into and knocked down a British soldier as he crossed a street in broad daylight in southeast London, before killing him with a meat cleaver and knives.
The murder gained international notoriety when one of the attackers was filmed by passers-by standing in the street with blood-soaked hands trying to justify the attack.
JULY 7, 2005
Four young British Muslims detonated homemade bombs hidden in rucksacks on three underground trains and a bus during the morning rush-hour, in the first suicide bombings by Islamist militants in western Europe.
They killed themselves and 52 other people and wounded around 700 others.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Andrew MacAskillEditing by Gareth Jones)
A security guard is a person employed to protect property, assets, or people by enforcing preventative measures and responding to incidents.
A police patrol is a routine activity carried out by law enforcement officers to monitor areas for criminal activity and ensure public safety.
A bomb threat is a warning that an explosive device has been placed in a location, which can lead to evacuations and law enforcement responses.
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