A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after the stabbing of a rabbi near a bank in north London. The victim, who was attacked in the street shortly before 11am on Friday, was taken to a major trauma centre. Members of the public wrestled a man in his 40s to the floor on Stoke Newington High Street, keeping him pinned down until police arrived at the scene. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He was first taken to hospital for a minor head injury but later discharged and taken to an east London police station. The victim was named as Rabbi Alter Yaakov Schlesinger by the European Jewish Congress. The 50-year-old is a rabbi at the Satmar Yeshiva in Stamford Hill, according to the Jewish Chronicle. His condition is not life-threatening, the Metropolitan police said. Officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward and said said they were maintaining an open mind about the motive for the attack. A knife was recovered at the scene. DS James Tipple, from Hackney CID, said: “The victim was stabbed in broad daylight as he went about his business. He suffered multiple stab wounds in what was a horrific incident and will undoubtedly stay with him for a long time to come. “We’re conducting extensive inquiries into this attack and have been gathering evidence. However, I know many people saw this attack and, if anyone has any footage or information about this incident, please come forward and tell us what you know.” Construction site manager Lazar Friedlander and his brother Matt ran towards the alleged attacker and restrained him after hearing a “serious scream”. He told the PA news agency: “We ran outside, I saw a Jewish man covered in blood. I’m Jewish myself, and I can see another Jewish man shouting, ‘Hold him, catch him, he’s got a knife! Stabbing!’ “There were a couple of other people trying to grab him. Me and my brother managed to force him down and put his hands behind his back until the police came.” “I wouldn’t call myself a hero. You act in the heat of the moment,” added Friedlander, who lives locally. A witness told the Guardian that the victim was from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and was sitting up and conscious after the attack. Police have not at this stage said the attack was a hate crime, or linked it to antisemitism. Evan Schiff, who lives on Stoke Newington High Street, said he came out of a shop to find a man pinned to the floor by men wearing hard hats and hi-vis vests. “The workers were tackling the suspect and the victim was stumbling in the road,” he said. “Luckily, and hopefully, I think he’ll be OK. When the ambulance came, they took the victim into a cafe to sit him down and care for him. When I left the scene he was sitting up and conscious. It is so, so awful.” The Community Security Trust, a charity helping Jews in the UK with security and tackling antisemitism, tweeted that it was “aware of reports that a Jewish man has been stabbed in Stoke Newington, north London. We are in contact with police, who are investigating the incident.” It added: “There is no current assessment that this was, or was not, antisemitic.” The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, tweeted: “My thoughts are with the victim of this horrible attack and the whole community in Stoke Newington. Thank you to those members of the public who ran to help.”