2 men released on bail after arson attack on London Jewish community ambulances

British police said Thursday that two men have been released on bail after they were arrested in connection with an arson attack that destroyed four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity and parked at a synagogue.

The attack was being treated by police as an an antisemitic hate crime.

The two British nationals, aged 45 and 47, were detained Wednesday on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life, London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

The offense carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The men were released under strict bail conditions and will be closely monitored, police said.

“Although the two men have been released from police custody, there are strict bail conditions in place while we continue to investigate their suspected involvement in this incident,” said commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, which is leading the investigation.

“We continue to work to try and identify all of those involved in this appalling attack and the investigation team is working around the clock to do this,” she said.

Authorities on Wednesday described the arrests as an important breakthrough in the case, but noted that three people were visible in the closed-circuit camera footage of the attack.

Police are investigating a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran but have not declared the matter to be a terror attack.

The Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) group, meaning The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand, claimed the attack in a Telegram post, after saying it was also responsible for similar attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The blaze early on Monday morning in Golders Green, a London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, destroyed four ambulances run by the Jewish-run volunteer organization Hatzola.

The organization was established in 1979 and provides free medical transportation and emergency response to Jewish and non-Jewish residents of north London.

Oxygen cylinders in the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in the synagogue and an adjacent apartment block.

The arson attack came amid a soaring antisemitic incidents and attacks in the United Kingdom.

On October 2, 2025, during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, an attack on a synagogue in Manchester killed two and seriously injured three.

In February, two men were jailed for plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England.

And two Iranian nationals appeared in court in London last week accused of spying on multiple Jewish community sites, including one containing an elementary school, on behalf of Tehran.