Police in London are investigating an arson attack on several ambulances from a Jewish volunteer service, saying they are treating it as an antisemitic hate crime.
The attack early Monday took place in Golders Green, a north London suburb that is home to several synagogues and dozens of Jewish schools and restaurants. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it “a deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack.”
It damaged four vehicles belonging to the volunteer organization Hatzola Northwest, with “multiple cylinders on the vehicles” exploding, causing windows to break in nearby buildings, the London Fire Brigade said in a statement.
The police also said they were aware of explosions linked to the gas canisters onboard the ambulances.
Social media videos verified by NBC News showed massive flames rising from the ambulances as they burned, with the fire sending up thick plumes of smoke. Another video showed an explosion erupting as firefighters worked to douse the flames.
An officer from an emergency response unit in London on Monday after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles from a Jewish ambulance service.Alberto Pezzali / AP
No injuries were reported, Metropolitan Police Superintendent Sarah Jackson said in a statement, adding that police are examining CCTV footage.
“We believe we are looking for three suspects at this early stage,” she said. There have been no arrests so far.
The fire brigade said it received the first of 56 emergency calls around 1:40 a.m. (9:40 p.m. ET Sunday) and dispatched six fire engines and around 40 firefighters to the scene.
The fire was brought under control shortly after 3 a.m. local time, it said.
01:23
Michigan synagogue suspect seen buying fireworks before attack
00:0000:00
Nearby houses have been evacuated as a precaution, the police said.
“We will be engaging with faith leaders and carrying out additional patrols in the local area as we continue our investigation to provide reassurance and a highly visible presence,” Jackson said.
“My thoughts are with the Jewish community who are waking up this morning to this horrific news,” Starmer said in a post on X. “Antisemitism has no place in our society. Anyone with any information must come forward to the police.”
Hatzola Northwest was established as a nonprofit organization in 1979 to provide free emergency medical services to residents of North London. According to its website, it works closely with national emergency services and area hospitals and responds to thousands of calls a year, “from minor injuries to life-threatening conditions.”
Firefighters responding to a fire in the London suburb of Golders Green on Monday.Alberto Pezzali / AP
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the arson attack was “a particularly sickening assault — not only on the Jewish community, but on the values we share as a society.” The Hatzola volunteer ambulance corps is “an extraordinary service, whose sole mission is to protect life, Jewish and non-Jewish alike,” Mirvis added in a post on X.
Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green, Sarah Sackman, called for the perpetrators of what she said was a “despicable, cowardly, antisemitic arson attack” in her area in a post on X to feel “the full force of the law.”
The number of antisemitic incidents reported in Britain has surged since the Israel-Hamas war began in late 2023, including attacks on synagogues. The Community Security Trust, a British charity that works to protect the country’s Jewish population, recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, compared with 1,662 in 2022.
In October, two people were killed and three seriously injured when a man rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed people at a synagogue in Manchester, England, in what police declared a terrorist attack.
About 15,000 people live in Golders Green, half of whom are Jewish, according to 2021 census data.
