diff --git a/changes/2908.bugfix.rst b/changes/2908.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5b932b1b6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/2908.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Restore functionality of `del z.attrs['key']` to actually delete the key.
diff --git a/src/zarr/core/attributes.py b/src/zarr/core/attributes.py
index 6aad39085d..e699c4f66d 100644
--- a/src/zarr/core/attributes.py
+++ b/src/zarr/core/attributes.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def __setitem__(self, key: str, value: JSON) -> None:
     def __delitem__(self, key: str) -> None:
         new_attrs = dict(self._obj.metadata.attributes)
         del new_attrs[key]
-        self._obj = self._obj.update_attributes(new_attrs)
+        self.put(new_attrs)
 
     def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[str]:
         return iter(self._obj.metadata.attributes)
diff --git a/tests/test_attributes.py b/tests/test_attributes.py
index 16825c99e0..127b2dbc36 100644
--- a/tests/test_attributes.py
+++ b/tests/test_attributes.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import pytest
+
 import zarr.core
 import zarr.core.attributes
 import zarr.storage
@@ -59,3 +61,24 @@ def test_update_no_changes() -> None:
 
     z.update_attributes({})
     assert dict(z.attrs) == {"a": [], "b": 3}
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("group", [True, False])
+def test_del_works(group: bool) -> None:
+    store = zarr.storage.MemoryStore()
+    z: zarr.Group | zarr.Array
+    if group:
+        z = zarr.create_group(store)
+    else:
+        z = zarr.create_array(store=store, shape=10, dtype=int)
+    assert dict(z.attrs) == {}
+    z.update_attributes({"a": [3, 4], "c": 4})
+    del z.attrs["a"]
+    assert dict(z.attrs) == {"c": 4}
+
+    z2: zarr.Group | zarr.Array
+    if group:
+        z2 = zarr.open_group(store)
+    else:
+        z2 = zarr.open_array(store)
+    assert dict(z2.attrs) == {"c": 4}