2 men arrested as police probe U.K. antisemitic arson attack on ambulances

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the arrests marked 'an important breakthrough in the investigation.'

British police arrested two men on Wednesday in connection with an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity, an assault that authorities are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime.

The Metropolitan Police said the two men, aged 45 and 47, were arrested in London on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and that both men have been taken to a police station in the city for questioning.

Officers are searching two properties in north London, a few kilometres from the scene of the attack in Golders Green.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the arrests marked “an important breakthrough in the investigation.”

But she noted that surveillance camera footage of the incident suggests three people were involved.

Police have not declared the incident to be a terror attack, but are investigating a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran.

The blaze early on Monday morning in Golders Green, a London neighbourhood with a large Jewish population, consumed four ambulances belonging to the volunteer organization Hatzola Northwest. Oxygen cylinders in the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in an adjacent apartment block.

Also shattered was the community’s shaky sense of security, already strained by years of wars in the Middle East and soaring cases of antisemitic hate and violence against Jews.