Four ambulances from a service linked to the Jewish community were set on fire in the early hours of Monday (23) in London, in a case that is being investigated as an anti-Semitic hate crime, reported the London Metropolitan Police.
The attack took place in Golders Green, a neighborhood in the north of the British capital. According to information from The Guardian newspaper, the London Fire Department (LFB) sent six trucks and around 40 firefighters to fight the flames.
According to the LFB, several cylinders in the vehicles exploded, which broke windows in a neighboring apartment block, but authorities reported no injuries and said the fires had since been extinguished. They also vacated nearby residences as a precaution and closed some streets in the surrounding area.
The ambulances belong to Hatzola, an emergency medical services organization linked to the Jewish community and made up mainly of volunteers.
In a message on X, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that “the anti-Semitic arson attack in Golders Green is horrific”.
“I contacted Jewish community leaders this morning and will continue to do so throughout the day. An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on us all. We will fight the poison that is anti-Semitism,” the Labor premier said.
Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, called the acts a “particularly repugnant attack, not only on the Jewish community, but also on the values we share as a society.”
In his X account, Mirvis described the Hatzola ambulance service as “extraordinary” and added that its “sole mission is to protect the lives of both Jews and non-Jews.”
“The attack on Hatzola by people so committed to terror, hatred and the desecration of life is a painful demonstration of the constant battle between those who sanctify life and those who seek to destroy it,” the rabbi added.
“At a time when Jewish communities around the world face an increasing pattern of these violent attacks, we will meet this moment with shared determination and stand together against hate and intimidation,” he concluded.
The last major anti-Semitic attack in the United Kingdom occurred on October 2, 2025, when a man drove a car towards several people outside a synagogue in Manchester and subsequently attacked other worshipers with a knife during the Yom Kippur celebration.
The tragedy ended with three dead (including the perpetrator of the attack, a 35-year-old Syrian immigrant, who was killed by the police) and three injured.
