"He was pulling them as we were holding them, and they were buckling, he said. He saw the attacker's knife I've never seen such a large blade on a knife and what looked like a bomb strapped to his waist. He was shouting something to do with killing children. In his first newspaper interview, Finlay told the Guardian he saw evil as he looked at the knifeman: I've never felt this before, I've never experienced it, but there was evil."
"It was just after 6am and Yoni Finlay woke early with nerves. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and the 39-year-old Mancunian was due to sing the dawn prayer, Shacharis, before hundreds of worshippers later that morning. After practising his verse, Finlay buttoned up his white robes and headed to Heaton Park shul in north Manchester."
Yoni Finlay woke early on Yom Kippur to sing the dawn prayer at Heaton Park shul in north Manchester and prepared to lead hundreds of worshippers. After greeting Bernard Agyemang, the synagogue's security guard, Finlay took his place on the bimah and began prayers. A sudden bang preceded chaos: Finlay saw Agyemang crumpled and volunteer guard Andrew Franks covered in blood as an attacker tried to force the doors. Worshippers barricaded the entrance as the assailant, armed with an unusually large knife and something appearing like a bomb, shouted about killing children. The attacker later called 999 claiming responsibility and pledging allegiance to Islamic State. Finlay described feeling confronted by evil and said he suffers survivor guilt.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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