LONDON: Two 17-year-old teenagers have been jailed for 10 years in the UK for an arson attack at an Indian restaurant in London in August last year, leaving multiple diners seriously injured.
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On August 22, 2025, the two, along with a third accomplice, all masked, had stormed the eatery, Indian Aroma, ordering customers to remain in their seats and threatening them with long knives and swords, whilst the third individual emptied canisters of petrol over the furniture, floor, tables and chairs.
They then exited the building and held the door mostly shut as one of them lit a taper, which ignited a fireball in front of terrified diners.
The court heard how the clothes of one young woman, in her 20s, melted onto her skin and she sustained 50% burns, causing her to be placed in a medically induced coma. Her husband ran out of the restaurant on fire and sustained 51% burns. He told the court he “woke up 45 days after being burnt”.
The teenager pair, who denied the charges, were found guilty of arson with intent to endanger life and possession of a bladed article by a jury at the end of a seven-week trial earlier this year. They cannot be named due to their ages.
Sentencing them on Friday, Judge Michael Grieve KC said the attack was a sophisticated and professional operation, which involved a “high degree” of planning.
“You were both fully aware of the almost inevitable consequences, namely to cause serious harm, up to and including death, to complete strangers. I have no doubt you were carrying out this operation on the direction of some older and more experienced criminal who has not been identified… but you did so with cold blood.”
The motive of the attack remains unclear.
