Two men have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after four Jewish charity-owned ambulances were set on fire in north London.
The Hatzola ambulances were set ablaze in Golders Green in the early hours of Monday, in an incident being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
One man, 47, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in north-west London on Wednesday morning and a 45-year-old man was arrested in central London. Both are British nationals.
Borough commander Ch Supt Jason Stewart told the BBC the arrests were “clearly a significant development”, but said the force was aware that a third male was pictured in the CCTV footage.
He said the investigation “continues to move at pace” and added: “To the Jewish community, we take their safety incredibly seriously which is why we have stepped up our plans this week and will continue over the coming weeks through the Passover period and beyond and make sure we are doing everything we can to be there.”
Cdr Helen Flanagan, head of counter terrorism policing London, described the arrests as an “important breakthrough” but said the force was aware of CCTV which “suggests there were at least three people involved”.
“We fully recognise the local community will still be concerned and our investigation very much remains active and we will continue to work to identify and seek to arrest all of those who may have been involved,” she added.
The BBC has seen CCTV footage which shows three men approaching the synagogue in February. Members of the Jewish community now believe this could have been a surveillance attempt before the attack this week.
In the footage, which has been handed over to the police, one man can be seen trying to pull the locked door handle. When challenged, they said they were looking for a local mosque.
Synagogue president, Damon Hoff, told the BBC on Tuesday that he was certain there was surveillance of the synagogue before the ambulances in its car park were attacked.
The Met previously said the investigation was looking at an Islamist group with potential links to Iran.
This came after Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya – The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand – made an unsubstantiated claim of responsibility for the attack.
The group has claimed responsibility for a number of similar arson incidents across Europe.
Although the case is not being classed as a terror incident, the Met said the investigation is currently being led by counter-terror officers.
Hatzola is a Jewish-led non-profit organisation that provides free emergency medical response and hospital transportation to the north London community regardless of faith.
The Community Security Trust, a charity that tracks antisemitism in the UK and provides security to British Jews, welcomed the arrests and said: “We are grateful to the officers who have worked tirelessly to find those accountable.
“While this development is an important step forward, we know the community will understandably remain concerned.”
It added that its security operations would remain at a “high level”.
Det Ch Supt Luke Williams outlined additional security measures which have been put in place in the area, which include police officers being deployed to protect certain locations, alongside “additional highly visible armed police patrols”.
He added that these measures were precautionary and not in response to any specific threat.
Officers have been carrying out searches at the two London addresses where the men were arrested.
No injuries were reported in the attack but several explosions – linked to gas canisters on board the ambulances – caused the windows of nearby buildings to shatter and led to the evacuation of some residents.
Locals described the noise waking them up in the middle of the night and feeling increasingly fearful in the wake of the attack.
Three of Hatzola’s five ambulances were completely destroyed and another was damaged in the attack.
Four replacement ambulances, provided by the government, arrived at Hatzola on Tuesday.
More than £1.3m has been raised across multiple GoFundMe pages to help the service.
Hatzola chairman Shloimie Richman said money which had been donated to the service since the arson attack would be put towards a new, secure headquarters.
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