They refused to be browbeaten; refused to give in to terror. With Heaton Park synagogue, also called a shul, now a crime scene, those present at the scene of Thursday’s horrifying attack found themselves under police protection in a holding centre across the busy Middleton Road.

They remained defiant and, on the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, decided the Yom Kippur service should carry on regardless at the evacuation centre, across the road from their synagogue.

Rabbi Daniel Walker had continued with the prayers, ringed by police; the blood from tending to survivors still visible on his ceremonial robe, the kittel.

“We’ve obviously got to police quarters, and we continued to do part of the service, because at the end of the day, of course, it’s awkward and it’s difficult and people have got a multitude of emotions going on, but we carried on,” said Rob Kanter, 45, who had been inside the synagogue and survived unscathed.

“We did not do the whole service, but we did what we could in the circumstances.”