Seven arrested in London over foiled arson attack on Jewish community

By Lauren Kent, CNN

London (CNN) — British counterterrorism police arrested eight more people in connection with an investigation into suspected arson attacks in London, including seven arrests related to a foiled plot to potentially target a venue related to the Jewish community, police said Tuesday.

The seven arrests in relation to the foiled plot were conducted within the last 48 hours, as part of what police called “a proactive investigation into alleged conspiracy to commit arson.”

“At this time, while it is believed that the intended target of this conspiracy is a venue related to the Jewish community, the specific target or venue is not known,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Arrests were carried out in the English towns of Harpenden and Stevenage, and near the city of Birmingham, as well as the west London suburb of Ealing.

Police said that since the March 23 arson attack in the Golders Green neighborhood of London, in which several ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer rescue organization were set on fire outside a synagogue, a total of eight people have been charged with arson-related offences and 13 people remain in police custody or on bail under investigation.

“Our message is clear, we will not tolerate this intimidation of our communities, and will pursue those responsible,” said Vicki Evans, the police’s senior national coordinator of counterterrorism policing.

“One of our key lines of inquiry is whether criminal proxies – that is to say people being paid money to carry out a crime, are being used to commit any of these arsons,” Evans added.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, police said a 17-year-old boy has been charged with “arson not endangering life” in connection with a counterterrorism investigation into an arson attack on a synagogue in the Kenton area of northwest London. Minor damage was caused to the synagogue’s premises and nobody was injured in that attack, police said. The boy charged is a British national who cannot be named for legal reasons.

It comes as Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis warned on Sunday that a “sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum,” pointing to a series of arson and attempted arson attacks targeting the community.

Mirvis called the targeting of the synagogue in Kenton a “cowardly arson attack,” also noting the examples of an attack against a synagogue in the north London neighborhood of Finchley last Wednesday and an attempted attack on another building in Hendon, in northwest London, last Friday.

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CNN’s Ivana Kottasová and James Frater contributed to this report.