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A suspected terrorist was wrestled to the ground by two heroic police officers after two Jewish people were stabbed in a horrific attack. The suspect, who had a history of “serious violence”, is said to have launched himself at an elderly man and charged at “everyone around him”, including police officers.

The victims of the attack have been named as Nachman Moshe ben Chaya Sarah and Moshe Ben Baila. They were said to be stable in hospital. The latest atrocity, which has been declared a terrorist incident, prompted a renewed wave of anger over the “epidemic of violence against Jewish people”, with ministers now being warned it is a “national emergency”.

Sarah Sackman, the MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: “Attacks on British Jews are an attack on Britain itself.”

And the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said: “Words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.

“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader, and every decent person in our country. This is a hatred that we must face down together.”

Former prime minister Boris Johnson declared: “The Golders Green attack is sickening. The Jewish community is being attacked now in a way this country has not seen for decades – perhaps centuries. What is the useless Sadiq Khan doing? What is the Government doing? Their apathy is disgraceful.”

Sickening CCTV footage appears to show the suspect jumping at an older man moments after he put on a kippah. Horrified onlookers swiftly rushed to the man’s aid.

Another video apparently shows the 45-year-old suspect attacking an Orthodox Jew before chasing him down the street. He was seen lurching towards police officers before he was Tasered and pinned to the ground.

The terrified police officers ordered the man to “drop your knife” before firing their Tasers.

Yonathan, a Shomrim officer who heroically helped detain the alleged terrorist, said: “I managed to block him off, and with the police we managed to put him down.

“It’s very difficult to juggle someone with a knife and try to protect others, take him down and try to protect yourself as well. I did my best.

“He was going at everyone around him, including myself. At one point, he made eye contact with me, and came at me with a knife.

“He was going at the policeman, he was going at someone else. You go forward to try and block him, but then you go back because he’s coming towards you with a knife.”

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said his officers believed the suspect had a bomb when they confronted him.

Sir Mark, who faced calls to resign from members of the public as he made a statement at the scene, said the officers were “nothing short of extraordinary”.

The scene is around half a mile from a memorial wall where an attempted arson attack took place on Monday and near to where four Jewish community ambulances were destroyed by fire in late March.

And Sir Mark demanded Britain finally take antisemitism seriously.

He said: “Too many Jewish people in this country feel they have to make choices that no Briton should ever have to make, about how they dress, where they go, or how visibly they live their lives.

“That is completely unacceptable and has gone on for far too long.

“We also need to be honest about the nature of the threat. Antisemitism is fuelled by hateful and extremist ideologies. It comes from hostile states, the extreme Right, and the extreme Left.

“These are terrorist and hateful belief systems, but they are all rooted in racism. They are given space to operate when civic debate is weak, when hatred is excused, and when people are unwilling to challenge it directly.

“I also believe now is the time to ask some difficult questions.

“Why are we not seeing more condemnation of these attacks we have seen in recent weeks?

“Where are the voices against hate? Where is the solidarity with fellow Londoners who are being targeted simply for who they are?”

Another of the Shomrim heroes declared: “He was on a mission”.

Shlomoh, also a Shomrim volunteer, said: “I arrived at the scene and the road was still open, there were two police officers and a Shomrim member tasering and hitting the suspect.

“Members of the public came out and helped detain him, and within the space of a minute and a half, there was a lot of police and the road was cordoned off within five minutes”.

Witness James Marlow, who lives on Golders Green Road, told the Daily Express how the suspect desperately clung on to the knife, refusing to let it go even after he was Tasered.

He said: “He was struggling. They were trying to get the knife, but he refused to drop it. The police officers feared for their lives. He didn’t say a word.

“He stabbed someone in the neck. He was bleeding quite a lot.

“He decided to carry out his attack at a time when there are 60, 70, 80 police officers in the area. It’s like he had a mission and he was going to carry out that mission.”

Mr Marlow said the suspect was treated by paramedics from the Jewish ambulance service – Hatzola.

Ben Grossnass, a volunteer in Shomrim’s emergency response unit, said “the attacker was having CPR”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested the Government would deal with “the root causes of extremism and antisemitism” following the attack in Golders Green.

He told broadcasters: “I’ve just held a COBR meeting, bringing together all the relevant partners, including the Home Secretary, the London Mayor, the Metropolitan (Police) commissioner, to co-ordinate our response and to look at enhanced security.

“I’ve also spoken to CST. There is enhanced funding already in place. We need to increase that to give the level of protection that is needed.

“We need to take measures to deal with malign state actors, but we also have to be really clear that we need to get to the root causes of extremism and antisemitism, and so that is what we’re doing.”

The Government’s terrorism watchdog, Jonathan Hall, said pro-Palestine protests must be banned.

He told Times Radio that antisemitic language is “incubated” in the protests as he called the current spate of attacks on Jewish sites “a massive national security emergency”.

He said: “We are now at a point at which the Government starts to need to start to take more risks as to what it’s prepared to do.

“It’s not simply enough to offer thoughts and prayers and to support the police investigation.

“I do think that we’ve reached the point now… where current political leadership needs to make a case which is deeply uncomfortable about what is happening at the moment to Britons who are being targeted day in, day out.

“It pains me to say this, but I think we may have reached a point where we need to have a moratorium on the sorts of marches that have been happening.

“It’s clearly impossible at the moment for any of these pro-Palestine marches not to incubate within them some sort of antisemitic or demonising language.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Jewish people in our country are under constant attack. This is no longer a growing pattern.

“There is an epidemic of violence against Jewish people. It is now a national emergency and needs to be treated as such by the Government and public authorities.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “I’m very clear, our Jewish community are a part of our community here in the United Kingdom and I want them to feel safe.

“I do not want Jewish people in our country to be leading a smaller life or to have to build ever higher walls in order to keep themselves safe.

“These are not warm words, they are a statement of intent and what is and what is not acceptable in our country.

“I will not tolerate a situation where our Jewish citizens have to lead smaller lives compared to the rest of us. That is not acceptable to me.”