LONDON — Essa Suleiman, a 45-year-old British national, was charged Friday in London with three counts of attempted murder following knife attacks on Jewish men. Two of the counts relate to a stabbing in Golders Green in north London, and a third concerns an earlier incident the same day elsewhere in the city in which a man sustained minor injuries, police said.

Suleiman, who was born in Somalia and came to the United Kingdom legally in the 1990s, is due to make his first court appearance later Friday. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, taken to hospital and then released into police custody.

Police declared a terrorist incident after two Jewish men were stabbed on a street in Golders Green. The victims, Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were seriously injured and treated at the scene for stab wounds. One has since been discharged from hospital, and the other remains in stable condition.

Members of the local voluntary security service Shomrim were first on the scene and helped apprehend the suspect. The suspect tried to stab police officers when they arrived, and officers used tasers to bring him down. Officers had been called to an earlier incident at an address in Great Dover Street in Borough just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, arriving within around six minutes.

"This is another horrendous act of violence directed against our Jewish communities," Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said in a statement at the scene. "The suspect has a history of serious violence and mental health issues," Rowley said. The suspect was known to the Prevent programme and was subject to a Prevent referral in 2020, which was closed the same year, police said. Counterterrorism officers are investigating whether the stabbings are linked to recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London.

Some bystanders shouted "shame on you" and "resign" at Rowley when he made his statement at the scene.

The British government declared antisemitism in the United Kingdom an emergency and announced an extra £25 million in funding for increased police patrols and security around synagogues, schools and community centres. "I am treating the rise in antisemitic attacks in the UK as an emergency," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a meeting of the government's emergency committee. "We will deal with the roots of antisemitism and extremism," Starmer said. Buckingham Palace said King Charles III was deeply concerned.