British counter-terrorism police are investigating an arson attack on four ambulances in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green in north London. The incident occurred early Monday morning at around 01:45 local time, with vehicles operated by the Jewish volunteer-led ambulance service Hatzola being set ablaze.
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said late on Monday that police will deploy 264 extra officers to protect the Jewish community. During the incident, oxygen canisters on the ambulances exploded, shattering windows in a nearby residential building, though no injuries were reported. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
The attack took place in the car park of a local synagogue, where Hatzola's vehicles were parked. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the torching of the vehicles a "deeply shocking antisemitic attack" and stated, "Antisemitism has no place in our society." London's Metropolitan Police confirmed the incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
Counter Terrorism Policing is leading the inquiry, even though it has not yet been determined to be a terror attack. Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said at the scene that CCTV footage appeared "to show three people in hoods pouring an accelerant onto the vehicles before igniting them and fleeing." A group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand) claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on its Telegram channel.
The SITE monitoring service said the group is aligned with Iran, and it has also claimed similar attacks this month in Belgium and the Netherlands. In an update on Monday evening, the Metropolitan Police said it was "aware of an online claim from a group taking responsibility for the attack and enquiries are ongoing to establish the authenticity and accuracy of this claim." According to the Community Security Trust, antisemitic incidents reported across the UK have soared since late 2023, with 3,700 incidents recorded in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
Source: www.dw.com