Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of this top story:
Officers were called to Highfield Road in Golders Green at about 1.45am on Monday after receiving reports of ambulances on fire near the Machzike Hadath synagogue.
The torched emergency vehicles were run by Hatzola Northwest, a Jewish charity established in 1979 and run by volunteers providing free medical transportation and emergency response to Jewish and non-Jewish people in north London.
Keir Starmer called for communities to “all stand together” in the face of the “horrific antisemitic attack”. He said: “My thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with those in the vicinity, the residents who are understandably very concerned, the Jewish community across the country deeply concerned.”
The Met said the incident was being treated as an antisemitic hate crime and counter-terrorism officers are leading the investigation. Security agencies are investigating whether a group linked to Iran is behind an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.
The Metropolitan police said efforts to authenticate a claim of responsibility made by a group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) were a “priority” as they sought to track three hooded people caught on CCTV at the scene.
Security sources have cautioned against a rush to tie Iran to the arson, leaving open the possibility of an antisemitic attack with no link to Iran or any organised group. It has not so far been designated as a terrorist incident.
Here is our full report
An Al Jazeera news crew was forced to leave the scene of the arson attack after a crowd chanted “go home”.
Footage from Reuters appears to show one man telling a crew member: “Go take your briefcase, go take your Al Jazeera equipment and go. No one wants Al Jazeera here.” Another man tells him: “Go back to Qatar” before he leaves. It is not clear how the altercation started.
Later, the crowd chants “Al Jazeera off our streets” and “go home”. At one point, someone appears to shout “terrorists”.
One police officer tells the crowd: “They’re reporting the news” before one man says: “We feel threatened by Al Jazeera being here. We feel threatened. We don’t feel safe.
“The reporting is going to go to potential terrorists. That’s why we don’t want to see that on our streets. For our safety, please remove them from our streets.”
Updated
