Paralysed banks, grounded planes and chaotic hospitals: for two days, life ground to a halt in Afghanistan after the Taliban unexpectedly cut off the internet and phone networks.

Authorities had for weeks been restricting broadband access in several provinces to prevent “vice” on the orders of the Taliban’s supreme leader.

But no one in Kabul was prepared for a nationwide shutdown.

Young Kabulis first travelled to high points in the mountainous capital, phones raised skyward, hoping to catch a signal. Then they tried buying SIM cards from different operators — before giving up.

For Afghanistan’s 48 million people, it became impossible to send news to their relatives or receive precious remittances from abroad to pay their bills.

Some residents of Herat and Kandahar travelled to border towns to pick up signal from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.

But for the rest of the country, with no news from the outside world, rumours swelled to the rhythm of helicopters.

“The Americans are going to retake Bagram Air Base!” whispered the streets, after US president Donald Trump’s recent calls to have the US-built facility returned.

Others wondered, incorrectly, that the reclusive Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and loyalists had replaced Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who advocates a pragmatic approach to running the country.

As of Thursday, the Taliban authorities had still yet to comment on the shutdown.

‘A return to candlelight?’

Across the country, one of the poorest in the world, banking systems stopped functioning and the informal money exchange system used by much of the nation also broke down.

“Cash withdrawals, card payments, fund transfers — everything relies on the internet. We can’t do anything without it,” a private bank manager told AFP.

For Afghans, there was no choice but to survive on whatever cash they had on hand.

In the half-deserted streets, Taliban security personnel communicated via walkie-talkies.

“I’ve worked in security for 14 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“What next? Are we going to cut off the electricity and go back to candlelight?” added another civil servant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Domestic and international flights were also grounded, but with no way to be warned, passengers continued to flock to airports.

Hospital emergency rooms lacked both staff and patients — as many Afghans were too frightened to travel.

Doctor Sultan Aamad Atef, Afghanistan’s only neurologist, saw a 30% drop in visits.

“Without online appointments, patients have to show up spontaneously and hope I can take them, or wait, sometimes for nothing,” he told AFP.

Wedding day drama

Overnight, two million Afghan women were deprived of online courses, according to the Malala Fund.

“I was so scared this would last and I wouldn’t be able to get my bachelor’s degree… studying remotely is all I have left,” a 20-year-old student told AFP on Wednesday.

Her parents refused to send her younger brother to school without a mobile phone.

Restaurants without delivery services, the post office, travel agencies and shops all told AFP they had suffered heavy economic losses.

Weddings — often involving a lifetime of savings and up to 2,000 guests — became an “unmanageable situation”, a wedding hall boss in the capital Kabul told AFP.

“We plan weddings well in advance, but we can’t get any confirmation that the bride and groom, and their guests will even show up,” he told AFP, hours before the blackout ended on Wednesday night and the wedding went ahead.

“Ten years wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the economic losses of the last two days,” laments Khanzada Afghan, a grocery store manager in eastern Jalalabad, who sent his employees home.

• Manchester police activate counter-terror response protocol.
• PM Starmer chairs emergency meeting after leaving summit early.
• King Charles, Israel condemn attack on Yom Kippur as horrific.

Two people were killed on Thursday and three badly wounded outside a packed synagogue in Manchester in a car and stabbing attack, with the suspect believed shot dead by UK police.

As the Jewish community marked the holiday of Yom Kippur in the northwestern city, police were called to the incident, activating a national terrorism-response protocol.

The attack struck days ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, raids on Israe,l which sparked a fierce offensive in Gaza, inflaming passions in Britain.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer swiftly condemned the attack as “horrific”, and announced security was being boosted at UK synagogues.

He left a European political summit in Denmark early to chair an emergency security meeting in London.

King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the horrific attack in Manchester, especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community”.

Greater Manchester Police declared a “major incident” shortly after 9:30am (0830 GMT) after officers were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall neighbourhood.

The force initially said paramedics were treating four people for “injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds” while confirming firearms officers had shot one man “believed to be the offender”.

Within hours, it announced two people had died and the suspected offender shot by officers was “also believed to be deceased”.

Police said the death could not be confirmed due to “suspicious items on his person”, noting a bomb disposal unit was at the scene.

Three people were also in a “serious condition”, police added.

Starmer said he was appalled and pledged to “do everything to keep our Jewish community safe”.

“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” he added.

Israel’s embassy in the UK said it was “abhorrent and deeply distressing” that “such an act of violence should be perpetrated on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar”.

“The safety and security of Jewish communities in the United Kingdom must be guaranteed,” it added on X.

Police said officers first responded to calls from the public about a car driving into people outside the synagogue, as well as reports that a security guard had been attacked with a knife.

A witness told BBC Radio he saw police shooting a man after a car crash.

“They give him a couple of warnings, he didn’t listen until they opened fire,” he said.

“He went down on the floor, and then he started getting back up, and then they shot him again.”

Police said “a large number of people worshipping at the synagogue… were held inside while the immediate area was made safe”, but then evacuated.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham told the BBC police had “dealt with it very quickly with some amazing support from members of the public”.

He urged people “not to speculate on social media”, while noting the Jewish community “will be very worried by the news”.

The city, famous around the world for its two Premier League football clubs and industrial history, is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the UK.

It totalled more than 28,000 in 2021, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

MP Graham Stringer said the area was home to both large Jewish and Muslim communities.

“By and large, community relations are excellent between all the different ethnic groups and religious groups,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that records antisemitic incidents, said it was “working with police and the local Jewish community”.

“This appears to be an appalling attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year,” CST added.

The city has witnessed several deadly terror attacks, notably in 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a homemade suicide bomb outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.

It killed 22 people, some of them children, and injured hundreds more.