I'm friends with Heaton Park Synagogue worshipers. I'm heartbroken terror has come to my home city yet again - Patrick Christys

After just one phone call my worst fears were confirmed - one of my friend’s grandfathers is currently in hospital. It looks as though he was struck by the car. Two people are dead. An entire community is scarred.

I went to Manchester Grammar School, which has always had a large Jewish contingent.

Greater Manchester has the largest Jewish population outside London.

I’m told by an old teacher that many Jewish parents are now no longer sending their children there, instead they are sending their sons to the Jewish King David High School. Why? Because there is more security. The fact is, local Jews do not feel their children are safe walking the streets. How sad is that?

One of my friends lives a few doors down from where the attack happened today, he said: “We all knew this was coming. We’ve had swastikas painted on Jewish gravestones, Jewish businesses have been attacked, my wife won’t walk to work because she’s worried that she might be attacked.

“We have to pay for security at every Jewish school and synagogue. Why do people think that is? It’s because of the terror threat."

Another friend of mine is more enraged. He says: “Because by and large Jews have integrated very well into Britain, worked hard, paid tax and done well for themselves, we’re not treated like a vulnerable minority, but we are.

“Because of the perception that Jews are wealthy, people don’t think we need protection or that we can suffer racism. But antisemitism is becoming far worse."

And this is the thing - when I was going to school in Fallowfield, it was always a very diverse area. I’d duck out of school at lunchtime to go and eat on the Curry Mile, I’d play cricket against local schools or clubs and you’d often come up against teams made up entirely of Pakistani lads.

But the place has changed. It feels more threatening now.

When I was at school the bus loads of boys coming in from very Jewish areas like Whitefield and Prestwich didn’t seem to feel as though they had to hide their faith. I never remember any of them being shy about wearing a kippah or a Star of David necklace.

They hide their faith now.

One of my old school friends works in the NHS - he won’t even tell his colleagues he’s Jewish because he’s worried about discrimination.

Another mate, who had his Bar Mitzvah at the Heaton Park Synagogue and lives round the corner, tells me he is regularly racially abused by people in passing cars.

He told me that his boss sent him home from work after news of the attack broke this morning - he had to walk through the police cordon to get home. He could see bomb disposal units. He’ll have to walk past that synagogue every day, living with the daily reminder that there are people walking amongst us who clearly want to wipe Jews off the face of the earth.

I spoke to one Jewish friend this morning in Manchester who said he’s moving his family to America because he’s sick of feeling threatened.

There is a sense among members of the Manchester Jewish community who I spoke to today that their warnings have not been listened to.

In the wake of the October 7 attacks there were large pro-Palestine demonstrations in the city - at one of these a women, here on a student visa, said she was "full of pride" about Hamas’ barbaric attack.

There is an allegation that one Jewish boy attending a children’s hospital in Manchester was booted out of his bed and forced to lie on the floor by two nurses wearing Palestine badges.

There are other visible signs of the terror threat in Manchester - the famous Christmas market is now patrolled by armed police, there are bollards to stop nutters driving cars into crowds, police don’t just say: “Happy Christmas” they say: “Be vigilant."

Oasis song: ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ became the unofficial anthem in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing…but it feels like the scale of the terror threat was swept under the carpet.

One of my friends said this to me this morning: “Why haven’t the police or politicians listened to the Jewish community? We’ve told them time and time again that we have allowed people with warped ideologies, from countries where anti-semitism is not only rife but actively encouraged, to come and live in Manchester.

“We’ve been here a long time but now we don’t feel safe."

I wonder what it will take for this country to have its ‘wake up’ moment. The problem is getting worse, not better.