2 arrested for trying to torch London synagogue in what cops call an antisemitic attack

47-year-old woman and 46-year-old man detained hours after targeting Reform temple, throwing two bottles of suspected flammable material that did not end up igniting

Police in London arrested two people on Wednesday over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the north of the city, amid an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britain.

The pair — a 47-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man — were detained in Watford, north of the capital, and are being held in custody, police said.

The attack shortly after midnight on Wednesday came after an arson attack on ambulances run by the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola in London last month and a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester in October 2025.

The latest incident targeting the Finchley Reform Synagogue, which police said was being treated as an “antisemitic hate crime,” was being investigated with support from counter-terrorism detectives.

“I hope the swift action by officers today to identify and arrest two people provides some reassurance and demonstrates how seriously we take attacks of this nature,” Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in the area, said in a statement.

“We are aware of the significant concern that this incident will cause in the community, particularly in the wake of the arson attack in Golders Green last month,” said Williams, referencing the ambulance arson attack.

Describing the attack in an earlier statement, police said two people wearing dark clothing and balaclavas approached the synagogue in Finchley and “threw two bottles suspected to contain petrol,” which did not ignite, the Metropolitan Police Force said.

Police officers stand on duty at a cordon near to the Finchley Reform Synagogue, in the North Finchley area of north London, on April 15, 2026, following an attack on the synagogue in the early hours of the morning. (Toby Shepheard / AFP)

Local member of parliament Sarah Sackman said she refused to accept such incidents becoming “the new normal.”

“This shocking attempt to harm a local synagogue follows a series of alarming attacks on the Jewish community in Finchley and Golders Green,” she said in a statement.

“British Jews must be free to go about their lives without fear – whether taking their children to nursery or attending synagogue. We do not want to live behind ever higher walls.”

Monitoring groups have reported an upsurge in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Britain, particularly since the start of the war Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.

The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK last year, a four percent rise on 2024, but down on 2023.

Two men and a boy have been charged over the ambulance attack on March 23, in which four Hatzalah ambulances were destroyed.

A police forensics officer works during an investigation into an attack in the early hours of the morning, at the Finchley Reform Synagogue, in the North Finchley area of north London, on April 15, 2026. (Toby Shepheard / AFP)

The 2025 Yom Kippur attack on the Manchester synagogue left two people dead and three seriously injured, prompting increased anxiety among Jewish communities.

In February, a court jailed two men for life after police foiled a separate plot to carry out an Islamic State-inspired gun attack on a Jewish gathering in Manchester.

Two Iranians also appeared in court in London in March, accused of spying on the Jewish community in London on behalf of Tehran.

Earlier this year, the British government announced that about 28 million pounds ($38 million) would be provided to help provide security at synagogues, Jewish schools and community centers.