Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned an early morning attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that caused significant damage, calling it an “outrage.”
Police in the state of Victoria said arson and explosives investigators were on the scene of a suspicious fire at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea area in south-east Melbourne. The city is the capital of the southern Australian state of Victoria.
“This is an outrage,” Albanese told ABC Melbourne radio. “The violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is something that we should never see in Australia. It’s risk lives, it’s clearly aimed at creating fear in the community.”
Authorities got the call at about 4:10 am on Friday (1710 Thursday GMT) and were told that two men were inside the synagogue and had poured liquid on the floor, the police said.
A worshipper disturbed them and they fled, the police said. The man who confronted the two reportedly sustained injuries to his hand and was treated on the scene, the police reported. No other injuries were reported but there was significant damage to the building.
“There was some banging on a door with some liquid thrown inside and was lit alight, the few people inside the synagogue ran outside the back door, one of them got burnt,” Adass Israel Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein told ABC news.
Klein told ABC that he believes the fire had destroyed “a huge amount of furniture and holy books and Torah scrolls”.
“It’s quite horrendous and the community is really reeling from it,” he said.