LONDON (AP) — Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire early Monday in London in what British police are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime. Detectives are working to determine whether a claim of responsibility from a group with alleged links to Iran is authentic.
Though it has not been classified as a terrorist incident, counterterror officers have been put in charge of the investigation. No one was injured in the nighttime attack, which shattered windows in nearby homes and left the vehicles charred shells.
“We are pursuing all lines of inquiry, including an online claim of responsibility by an Islamist group who have claimed other attacks across Europe and have potential Iranian state links,†said Mark Rowley, chief of London's Metropolitan Police.
Religious and political leaders condemned what called a “horrific" attack.
“Antisemitism has no place in our society and it’s really important that we all stand together at a moment like this,†said Starmer, who met Jewish community leaders at 10 Downing St. on Monday to discuss the response to the attack.
Officers were called to Golders Green, a north London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, after receiving reports of a fire, the Metropolitan Police force said. Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a volunteer organization that provides emergency medical response, were damaged, according to the London Fire Brigade.
Oxygen cylinders on the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in an adjacent apartment block. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
What appeared to be footage from a security camera showed three figures in black wearing hoods carrying a canister toward one of the ambulance before flames erupted around the vehicle. Police said they are looking for three suspects but no arrests have been made yet.
Police try to authenticate claim of responsibility
A video posted on Telegram, allegedly by an Islamist group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, showed a map of the location where the ambulances were kept and footage of them on fire. A group of the same name, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, previously claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Israel’s government has called it a recently founded group with suspected links to pro-Iran networks.
“The rapid growth in recent years of Iranian state threats is grave,†Rowley told the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, which works to provide safety for the Jewish community organization. But he said “it is too early for me to attribute last night’s attack in Golders Green to the Iranian state.â€
The attack spread fear and alarm through Britain’s approximately 300,000-strong Jewish community, which feels increasingly vulnerable.
Mark Reisner, who lives in the neighborhood, heard loud explosions and arrived at the scene “just as the third ambulance was blowing up,†he told Sky News.
“A very loud explosion, you sort of felt it go through your guts,†he said, adding, “it's just left us all reeling with confusion and shock.â€
Previous attacks on UK Jewish community
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust, which works to protect the Jewish community. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
In October 2025, an attacker gathered outside a Manchester synagogue to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being .
Last week two men in London were charged with carrying out “hostile†surveillance last year of the U.K.’s Jewish community on behalf of Iran.
Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said the force would increase security for Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers ahead of Passover next month,
Some members of the community criticize Starmer's Labour Party government for failing to prevent pro-Palestinian demonstrations from tipping into anti-Jewish speech and acts.
Peter Zinkin, a Conservative politician who represents Golders Green on the local council, said the community felt “distress and anger.â€
“Burning ambulances in the middle of the night is a disgrace,†he said. “And you have to ask yourself, why did it happen? And the reason I’m afraid that it happened is that the government and the media, particularly certain parts of the media, have validated antisemitism on a countrywide scale.â€
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the head of the Anglican Church, said “such acts of violence, hatred and intimidation have no place in our society.â€
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called it a “sickening assault.â€
“At a time when Jewish communities around the world are facing a growing pattern of these violent attacks, we will meet this moment with shared resolve and stand together against hatred and intimidation,†he wrote on X.
___
Associated Press writers Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
