Suspected arson reported at London-area Jewish school

JTA — Police in the London area reportedly are investigating a suspected arson attack at a Jewish primary school.

The fire at the Talmud Torah Toldos Yakov Yoser school in Hackney, a northeastern London borough, occurred on the night of Sept. 28 and did not result in any injuries, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

The paper quoted Nick Bull, an agent of the violent-crime unit in Shoreditch, as saying that “an investigator at the London Fire Brigade confirmed that no accelerant was used, but believes that the fire was started on purpose, because two separate fires in two separate rooms were started at the same time.”

Security cameras did not cover the area. Police are appealing for witnesses and information about the attack, the report said.

The Hackney website says it is home to a large haredi Orthodox Jewish community concentrated within a tight geographic area in the borough’s north. According to the site, a study in 2007 estimated the community’s population at approximately 15,409, or 7 percent of Hackney residents, while other estimates are somewhat higher.