The Police of Australia reported this Monday that it is investigating as a “terrorist incident” arson in a synagogue from the southern city of Melbourne last Friday, which resulted in significant damage to this property and two minor injuries.
“It is likely that this was a politically motivated attack. “This is now a terrorism investigation,” Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced today at a press conference in Melbourne.
The decision, which gives more powers to the authorities to investigate and arrest suspects and allocate more financial and intelligence resourceswas adopted at the end of a meeting between representatives of the AFP and the Victoria State Police, whose capital is Melbourne, to classify this deliberate arson.
This conclusion was reached after investigations carried out by agents over the weekend will provide “information and evidence” to determine that it is a “terrorist attack”, explained Victoria Police Commissioner Shane Patton at a press conference.
Assuring that there is no indication of a new attack against another synagogue in his jurisdiction, Shane clarified that For now, the authorities are trying to find the whereabouts of three suspects in the attackwithout giving more details.
In her turn, the head of the Government of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, reiterated that in the face of this “horrible, evil and anti-Semiticwhich “Now we know it is a terrorist attack.”the thoughts of his compatriots owe these to the Jewish community in Melbourne.
The fire, which broke out at around 4:10 a.m. local time (17:10 GMT Thursday) at the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne’s southeast, caused significant damage to the building, although no one was seriously injured despite the fact that an unknown number of members of this congregation were inside for morning prayer.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October last year attacks against Jewish Australians have been recordeda community that represents 0.4% of the population of more than 26 million inhabitants.
The Canberra Executive has on several occasions expressed its concern regarding the division created in Australian society as a result of the war in Gaza, and even has created two special positions to combat growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the southern nation.
