An intruder with a large knife burst into the home of a Hasidic rabbi in a New York suburb on Saturday night, stabbing and wounding five people just as they were gathering to light candles for Hanukkah, officials and a witness said.

It was a terrifying scene, the officials and witness reported, saying that the violence occurred at about 10pm as numerous people were celebrating Hanukkah at the home of the rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg, in Monsey, which is in an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, visiting the rabbi’s home on Sunday morning, called the attack an “act of domestic terrorism”.

The New York police department said a suspect had been arrested in Harlem and turned over to the authorities in Rockland County, which is northwest of New York City and where the attack took place.

The suspect, Grafton Thomas, 38, who is from Greenwood Lake, New York, near Monsey, is facing five counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree burglary.

Two of the victims remained in the hospital as of Sunday morning, the police said. One victim is in critical condition with a skull fracture, according to the authorities.

A law-enforcement official said that Thomas’s vehicle was tracked to Harlem with the help of licence-plate readers.

The patrol officers who confronted and detained Thomas found him “covered with blood”, said the official who requested anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

The detectives were informed that the FBI and state police were on their way to take custody of Thomas, according to the official. Thomas was then handed over.

At his arraignment on Sunday morning, Thomas, who was wearing a white prison suit, pleaded not guilty to all charges. Thomas has no criminal history and acted alone, according to the authorities.

A witness, Aron Kohn, 65, who said he was in the rabbi’s home at the time, recalled that the rabbi was near the Hanukkah candles when the intruder stormed in.

“I was praying for my life,” Kohn said. “He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn’t have time to react at all.”

“We saw him pull a knife out of a case,” Kohn said. “It was about the size of a broomstick.”

Kohn said that after the attacker fled, he tried to enter a synagogue next door, Congregation Netzach Yisroel, which is led by Rabbi Rottenberg.

But people inside the synagogue apparently heard screams from the rabbi’s home and, fearful, locked the door so the attacker could not get in, Kohn said.

Michael B. Specht, town supervisor for Ramapo, which includes Monsey, said the suspect had been arrested in New York City in the 32nd Precinct, which covers Harlem.

Harlem is about 30 miles from Monsey.

“Obviously, there’s been a history in the region of violent attacks upon the Orthodox community,” Specht said. “This is something very nightmarish to have happened in our town.”

Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, a group that covers New York and New Jersey, said one of the victims was the rabbi’s son.

“The house had many dozens of people in there,” Gestetner said in a phone interview. “It was a Hanukkah celebration.”

Peggy Green, a Monsey resident who is Jewish, said she was at the Evergreen Kosher Market at around 10pm when she heard that there had been a stabbing nearby on Forshay Road.

“It’s very scary,” she said, of being Jewish in Rockland County, adding that she thinks synagogues should have more armed security.