Greater Manchester police have arrested two men in connection with an antisemitic attack on a teenage boy who was left in a critical condition.
Police confirmed that the men, both aged 17, had been arrested on suspicion of assault and violent disorder following an attack at Bowker Vale Metrolink attack on 5 September .
Seventeen-year-old Moshe Fuerst was left with serious head injuries and is being treated in hospital after he was attacked by three men.
Mr Fuerst, 17, was one of four Jewish boys involved last Saturday at the Bowker Bale Metrolink station, near Heaton Park, the heart of north Manchester’s Jewish community.
His father Rabbi Fuerst said that his son was brought out of an induced coma on Monday night after suffering a severe bleed to the brain.
Mark Gardner, the CST's director of communications, said: “The assault confirms the need for security measures as already fully planned by CST, synagogues and Greater Manchester Police for the imminent High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This includes CST personnel, commercial security guards and visible policing.”
Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “These arrests demonstrate that the police are taking this incident very seriously which I hope gives reassurance to the Jewish community and the wider public. I would urge anyone with information about this incident to come forward and report it to police. Moshe Fuerst has suffered terrible injuries and I hope him and his friends make a speedy and full recovery.
“The police are treating this as a hate crime and, while we don’t know the full details of this particular incident, I want to make clear that all reports of hate crime will be dealt with seriously. We have seen a significant rise in reports of hate crime and in particular anti-Semitic hate crime reports, which have risen by more than half over the past year. The CST has recognised that much of this is a result of the work that has been done by police, other agencies and local communities to build real confidence that victims will be taken seriously when they come forward.”
