A car has been caught on CCTV apparently accelerating towards a Jewish family as they crossed a road in a Salford neighbourhood with one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in Britain — with observers calling for police to investigate the incident as a potential antisemitic attack.
The footage, shared by Manchester Scoop, was recorded at around 10am on Monday 19 May on Leicester Road in Higher Broughton. It shows a car stopping at a green traffic light without moving, then waiting as the light turns red, before accelerating forward at speed precisely as the family begins to cross. No injuries were reported.
The apparent deliberateness of the driver’s actions — stopping at green, then moving at red as pedestrians stepped out — has led many viewers to conclude the manoeuvre was intentional. The clip has spread rapidly online, with community figures and social media users calling on Greater Manchester Police and the government to treat the incident as a hate crime and investigate urgently. Some have addressed their calls directly to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, given the broader context of rising antisemitic incidents across the country.
Higher Broughton and the surrounding area of Salford is home to a significant Orthodox Jewish population. In the 2011 census, 14.2 per cent of residents in Broughton gave their religion as Jewish, compared to 3.3 per cent for Salford as a whole and 0.5 per cent across England — a proportion that has grown considerably in the years since.
The incident adds to a deeply troubling picture for Jewish communities in the north of England and across Britain. In March, armed police were deployed to Leicester Road itself after reports of a suspicious individual in the Higher Broughton area sparked alarm among local Jewish residents, though the incident turned out to be a false alarm involving a man wearing a weighted gym vest.
Greater Manchester Police had not issued a public statement on Monday’s CCTV footage at the time of publication.
