Arson attack on Melbourne synagogue: Australian police search for 2 suspects

Sydney: Australian police said on Friday they were looking for two people suspected of deliberately starting a fire at a Melbourne synagogue that injured one and caused widespread damage.

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.

"This violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is an outrage. This attack has risked lives and is clearly aimed at creating fear in the community," Albanese said in a statement.

Counter-terrorism police will liaise with the Victoria state police on the investigation, Albanese said.

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.

"There was some banging on a door with some liquid thrown inside and was lit alight, the few people inside the synagogue ran outside the back door, one of them got burnt," Adass Israel Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"The whole place took alight pretty quickly."

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.

The Australian Jewish Association said it was "outraged but not at all surprised" by the attack and that the Jewish community had felt abandoned under the incumbent government.

Albanese's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the association's statement.

Australia has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since Israel retaliated against an attack by militant Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 with an assault on Gaza that has left tens of thousands of people dead.

Major Australian cities have seen dozens of pro-Palestine protests over the last year and the Jewish community says the government has not done enough to tackle the rise of anti-Semitism.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday gathered outside Sydney's Great Synagogue when some members of the Jewish community were inside, Australian media reported.