Police investigate suspected antisemitic car attack on Jewish pupils in Hendon

Police are investigating after a black saloon mounted the pavement towards three Jewish schoolchildren waiting to cross near Holders Hill Road in Hendon before driving off towards the A406.

The incident happened at about 3:40pm on Monday 20 April 2026 near the pedestrian crossing by October Place and the A1 carriageway in north-west London. Hasmonean High School for Boys said the pupils involved were its students, and headteacher James Fisher wrote to parents about what the school described as an “antisemitic traffic incident”.

Reports said the vehicle, described as a black saloon, came within inches of the pupils before returning to the road. The Metropolitan Police was appealing for witnesses as officers examined the circumstances around the near-miss, which involved three Jewish schoolchildren.

The episode has deepened concern in a part of north-west London where Jewish families have already faced a recent cluster of antisemitic incidents and security operations around community sites. For parents sending children to and from school, the case raises a blunt question: whether a dangerous moment on a residential road will be treated as an isolated driving incident or as another act of targeted intimidation.

The distinction matters. If investigators conclude the move was deliberate, the case would add to growing pressure on police and local institutions to show that threats aimed at Jewish children are being met with urgency, not routine reassurances. For Hasmonean families in Hendon, the immediate reality is simpler and more troubling: three pupils were on a pavement, a car drove towards them, and a school letter has now turned that moment into a live police inquiry.