Australian police has said they are looking for two people suspected of deliberately starting a fire at a Melbourne synagogue that injured one and caused widespread damage, Reuters reports.
The fire at the Adass Israel synagogue in the city’s south began in the early hours of Friday and police said the suspects were wearing masks. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack and said there was no place for anti-Semitism in Australia.
The Victoria state police said a worshipper who was at the synagogue for morning prayers saw two people who appeared to be spreading accelerant inside the building before setting it on fire.
“We believe it was deliberate. We believe it has been targeted. What we don’t know is why and we’ll get to the why,” Detective Inspector Chris Murray told reporters.
Dozens of firefighters and trucks doused the fire at the synagogue, built in the 1960s by Holocaust survivors in the suburb of Ripponlea.
Television footage showed firefighters at the scene and black soot on the walls, as congregants took Torah scrolls and prayer shawls that had escaped the fire to a car.
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